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ACT NOW AS A COORDINATED UNIT – AGRICULTURE STAKEHOLDERS URGED

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Stakeholders in the agriculture sector have been urged to act now to build alliances to promote agri-business development in the Region.

At the opening of the Consultation on Public-Private Sector collaboration at the Pegasus Hotel on Wednesday morning, the Hon. Robert Persaud, Minister of Agriculture, Guyana, and His Excellency Edwin Carrington, Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) stressed that given the food crisis and the current global and financial crisis, there was no time to waste in promoting food security and sovereignty.

According to Minister Persaud, the situation demanded that “we put our houses in order very early” to make the adjustments necessary to move the sector forward. The importance of the Consultation should not be underestimated as the Region could only weather the food, fuel, financial and economic crises through strong collaboration, he said.

“Now is time to take our activity beyond the usual talk-shop level and into an enhanced action mode,” he said. He underscored the need to pool resources both in the public and private sectors to make regional products more competitive. It was important also that stakeholders make informed decisions on where and what to invest in, the Minister said.

Recalling the various interventions in the agri-business sector over the past two years, the Secretary-General said that “now with the global financial and economic crisis impacting severely on all our countries, we have no more time. It is now time for action.”

Secretary-General Carrington said that while there was a sure potential for a viable agribusiness in the Caribbean, the Region had to respond to the requirements at the national, regional and international levels. Determined and systemic approaches needed to be made, he added.

“To develop this agribusiness sector we as a Region, must work together to build and support the appropriate private sector structures and to devise relevant policy frameworks in order to combat the challenges posed by high production costs and food prices, threats to food security and the small size of our economies. At the same time, it is necessary that we keep watch on a range of demographic, social, technological, organizational, and economic trends that are influencing agro-food systems at the global as well as at the regional levels,” the Secretary-General said.

The two-day Consultation is intended to facilitate dialogue between representatives of buyers and sellers; take stock of ongoing and planned programmes supported by relevant agencies to assess their significance to stakeholders; and identify potential synergies and collaboration in the design and/or implementation of the programmes of the agencies.

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