The first ever Caribbean Forum on Climate-Smart Agriculture has ended here with the organizers saying it provided an opportunity to promote and support options for adapting the Caribbean agricultural sector to climate change.
“We hope to be able to count on committed stakeholders to support the integration of climate change considerations into policies and research, and to foster institutional and cross-sectoral coordination of actions for the agricultural sector,” said Kervin Stephenson, the project specialist with the Inter-American Institute For Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) here.
The forum was attended by more than 180 people involved in the agricultural sector in 13 Caribbean countries.
The meeting here was organized by IICA, the Caribbean Community Climate Change Center (CCCCC), the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI).
A statement issued here said that the delegates participated actively in the discussion of topics such as pest and disease control, germplasm improvement, water and soil management, public investment, policies and laws on food and environmental protection.
They also held discussions on the importance of improving infrastructure and the sustainable management of water, which, in order to be addressed, require actions in the form of information and communication, favorable policies, capacity-building, introduction of innovations, and resource mobilization.
In addition, the CCCCC presented forecasts of climate change over the next few years and its expected effects on agriculture, and CARDI spoke about its efforts to create mitigation and adaptation policies as well as technical strategies, the statement added.
