(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA) which will be held in Georgetown, Guyana, 4-12 October, is being marketed as a great opportunity not only for pursuing food security but also for promoting agriculture as a business, modernising the sector, and creating and expanding networks.
The premier agriculture event in the Caribbean Community’s (CARICOM) calendar is being hosted by the Government of Guyana and will be convened this year at the Guyana International Convention Centre (GICC) under the theme `Linking the Caribbean for Food and Nutrition Security and Rural Development’.
CWA is a collaborative event with the main partners being the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the Caribbean Community Secretariat (CARICOM), the Caribbean Agricultural Research Development Institute (CARDI) and the ACP-EU Technical Centre for Cooperation on Agriculture and Rural Development (CTA).
As preparatory activities shift into high gear, organisers are confident of a successful event that will push agriculture to the forefront, raise the Community’s awareness of the importance of the sector to national and regional development, and create opportunities for greater collaboration and interaction among CARICOM Member States and with their extra-regional partners. As such, they are encouraging stakeholders in the sector to take full advantage of the event that is held once each year in a CARICOM Member State.
In addition to full-time farmers, persons who are not fully engaged in the sector will also get exposure at the CWA. Expectations also are that professionals in other fields and those who had once tilled the land, will be able to tap into the opportunities that are available in agriculture.
The organisers are encouraging those who once farmed and those who have moved on from agriculture, to re-enter the food production enterprise.
This year’s edition of the CWA will feature about 42 activities including workshop/seminars on modernizing agriculture, productivity, agricultural health and food safety, field visits, a Special Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) and an exposition, beginning on 9 October that will showcase the agricultural pursuits and development of CARICOM. `Cook off’ competitions featuring mouth-watering Caribbean cuisine will also be held.
Activities begin on Friday 4 October with a two-day Media Science Workshop hosted by CARDI and CTA, that has become a staple of the event. The event attracts media representatives from across the Caribbean as key stakeholders in the agriculture sector.
Other workshops will focus on Information and Communication Technology; Monitoring and Managing Pest Populations under a Changing Climate; the Development of the Coconut Industry in the Caribbean; Livestock; the Implementation and Mainstreaming of Regional Fisheries Policies; and Agricultural Health and Food Safety.
According to IICA Representative in Guyana, Mr. Wilmot Garnett, for the first time at the CWA, attention will be placed on the Cost of Production exercise in the agriculture sector, since it was an area that was often overlooked.
“Agriculture is a business, but we find that our farmers don’t write down and document things so we will be using a template and actually using some commodities, and we will go through this step by step with the farmers on how to ensure they are making money, that they are making a profit. Agriculture is a business and we need to instill that in our farmers, especially the young folks,” Mr. Garnett said, and added that there will be a focus on precision farming.
Visitors to the event will have an opportunity to tour several places of agricultural interest in Guyana, including the Guyana Sugar Corporation’s (GUYSUCO’s) Enmore Estate and Packaging Facility, the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority’s (NDIA’s) Hope Canal, the Guyana Rice Development Board’s (GRDB’s) Burma Research Centre, the Guyana School of Agriculture, the Satyadeow Sawh Aquaculture Center, the Guyana Livestock Development Authority, the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute and Mangrove Tour, the Hydromet’s Doppler Radar Tower and the Sante Fe Farm.
