(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Defined by the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, the Agriculture Policy for the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) came into focus in several ways during the Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA) 2008.
Addressing the audience on Wednesday, 8 October in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines at the official opening of CWA 2008, CARICOM Assistant Secretary-General for Trade and Economic Integration, Ambassador Irwin Larocque said CWA provided several avenues to profile the positives in Caribbean agriculture.
At the political level, he said, the CWA provided Ministers of Agriculture with the opportunity to seek to “give meaning to the Community Agricultural Policy and at the same time to consult with the various stakeholders as they do so.”
“At gatherings like these we get the opportunity to keep each other abreast of the fast paced changes in the global environment, review the impacts on the sector, exchange experiences from a national perspective, and develop regional strategies to combat the continuing and new challenges and constraints that confront our continuing efforts to further develop the agricultural sector. Perhaps we need to consider if the Region’s effectiveness in addressing these constraints may not be more greatly enhanced if there is a more deliberate and concentrated effort to relate more directly with the stakeholders in all our undertakings from conceptualisation and planning through implementation,” said Ambassador Larocque.
He said during the past years of CWA there had been notable progress, especially in the context of addressing the key binding constraints to agriculture development in the Region. These constraints are identified within the Jagdeo Initiative. The Assistant Secretary-General added that the inclusion of a farmers’ exhibition within the CWA week of activities was in keeping with the notion of involvement of the private sector.
“The Caribbean Week of Agriculture provides the means through which the farmers’ groups, the agro-processors and other stakeholders can provide for their input into the regional decision making process,” said Ambassador Larocque. He added that the Alliance for the Sustainable Development of Agriculture and the Rural Milieu, often referred to as The Alliance, was a critical component of CWA. He informed that The Alliance allowed the stakeholders to make recommendations to the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) on Agriculture, a decision-making organ of the Community. The COTED in turn, upon request may submit the views and recommendations of the Alliance through the Lead Head of Government with responsibility for Agriculture, and as appropriate, on to the Conference of Heads of Government for consideration.
The Alliance is a deliberative and consultative body whose membership includes the Ministers of Agriculture, the Caribbean Agribusiness Association, the Caribbean Cooperative Agricultural Research Program, the Caribbean Network of Rural Women Producers, and the Caribbean Forum for Youth in Agriculture, and regional, hemispheric and international agencies.
The CARICOM Assistant Secretary-General said the inclusion of a special segment during CWA 2008 on the media was noteworthy. He added that the role of effective communication cannot be overstated, and expressed the hope that on their part the media left their Agriculture Round Table (A.R.T) with a better understanding of agriculture issues.
