(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The policies and programmes for the agriculture sector in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), as set out in the Jagdeo Initiative will ensure that the Region’s agriculture sector is given priority in order for it to become sustainable.
This was underscored by the Jamaica Minister for Agriculture and Land, the Honourable Roger Clarke as he addressed delegates attending a symposium on Invasive Alien Species (IAS) in Puerto Rico on Tuesday 11 July. The symposium is one feature of the 42nd Annual General Meeting of the Caribbean Food Crops Society (CFCS).
The Minister informed that the Jagdeo Initiative, which is being spearheaded by Lead CARICOM Head of Government for Agriculture, H.E Bharrat Jadgeo, President of Guyana, recognised that there were several critical elements that must be understood if agriculture was to be sustained as a viable economic sector in the Community.
These critical elements are: agriculture is a business; agriculture is holistic, spanning the entire agri-product chain and with organic links to other productive sectors; the increasing importance of value-added food products and non-food products must be recognised; emphasis on national activities with sub-regional and regional activities included when they add value to national initiatives; the Initiative must build on existing actions to reduce duplication and be the Caribbean’s response to the mandates onto which countries have signed.
Minister Clarke stated that the Region attached a high level of importance to agriculture, adding that the Community’s agriculture policy was enshrined in the Revised Treaty establishing the Caribbean Community, including the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). He pointed to Articles 56 and 57 of the Revised Treaty as articulating the Region’s agriculture/agri-business policy goals and strategic framework for policy implementation respectively.
“The mandates recognise, develop and establish the significant importance of agriculture in sustainable development in the Caribbean and provide the framework within which agriculture must be repositioned,” said Minister Clarke.
The Jagdeo Initiative is a practical instrument to put in motion the Regional Transformation Programme on Agriculture (RTP) or its successor, the Caribbean Community Agriculture Policy. The Initiative began in 2002 when President Jagdeo sought assistance from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Inter American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), in consultation with the CARICOM Secretariat for assistance in repositioning agriculture in the Region.
Following wider consultations, the first proposal outlining the Initiative’s vision, scope and focus and the process for its development was presented by President Jagdeo to The Conference of CARICOM Heads of Government in July 2004, which endorsed it.
