It is a pleasure for me as Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community to join the Honourable Robert Persaud, Minister of Agriculture of Guyana, in welcoming Honourable Ministers and Officials from our Member States to this important meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development of the Caribbean Community.
Let me begin by extending special greetings to the Honourable Hilson Baptiste, Minister of Agriculture of Antigua and Barbuda who, I have learnt, is attending his first meeting of this Council. Honourable Minister, a warm welcome to you. We look forward to your active participation in the deliberations of this critical Community organ.
Mr. Chairman, permit me also to congratulate you on your assumption of the position of Chairman of this important meeting. I am confident that under your astute guidance this Meeting will achieve the desired results.
Honourable Ministers, you meet today with the benefit of the hard work of our Officials ably led by Mr Hubert Emmanuel the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Land, Fisheries and Forestry of Saint Lucia, on Wednesday to assist you. You would also no doubt have benefited from the outcome of the meeting of the Board of an important regional institution, the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), which took place yesterday.
Immersed therefore, as you must be in the issues before you today and eager to complete your work, I will not long detain you with these few brief remarks. Permit me however to set the place at the table of the Community’s development efforts at which Agriculture should take its seat.
Last July here in Georgetown at their Thirtieth Regular Meeting of the Conference, Heads of Government laid out in the Liliendaal Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security, the path which this sector should follow. In so doing they stated: “Recognising that agriculture is of strategic significance for the sustainable development of our Region, we have identified the sector as one of the drivers of economic growth and poverty alleviation of the Community.”
Agriculture has always been a key item on the Regional agenda – one cannot forget the early days of the Agriculture Marketing Protocol and the Oils and Fats Agreement. Over the years a number of initiatives, policies and strategies have been identified, all aimed at strengthening Regional agriculture. However, we have not yet been able to effectively transform the ideas and plans contained in the myriad documents into an acceptable reality.
That is the task that continues to face us. Can we make this Thirty-Second Special Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) for Agriculture truly special by taking decisions, which when the history is written, could be said to have been the turning point in Agricultural development in the Community?
Honourable Ministers, under the guidance of the Lead Head of Government for Agriculture in CARICOM, His Excellency President Bharrat Jagdeo, the current Chairman of the Conference, there have been in the past two years, an Agricultural Donor Conference, an Agriculture Investment Forum and most recently an Agri Business Forum. These initiatives were all designed, among other things, to promote the agricultural sector and demonstrate its attractiveness as an investment opportunity.
They were also in full recognition that agriculture and trade in agriculture among our Member States can be a major driver of the integration process. One can hardly recall a powerful nation whose foundation has not been in its ability to feed itself, irrespective of its other strengths. I am confident that we as a Community have the capacity to do likewise, in meeting our Region’s food and nutrition security needs.
To that end, we must look at the Region as one market for our agriculture products. We must therefore remove the barriers to trading among ourselves. We must challenge ourselves to develop the necessary protocols that would truly facilitate trade in agriculture products, while taking into account the need to secure plant and animal health and food safety. One must not be at the expense of the other.
In that regard, one of the items on today’s agenda refers to the establishment of the Caribbean Agricultural Health and Food Safety Agency (CAHFSA). Honourable Ministers you will recall that the establishment of CAHFSA is one of the priority Regional actions identified in the Declaration because of the need to facilitate and utilize the opportunities for trade in the CSME. The offer by Suriname to host the Agency is welcomed wholeheartedly.
Ministers, our Community, like much of the rest of the world, has had to face two global crises in the past two years, one affecting food security and the other the overall financial and economic well-being, that have pushed us to the edge. What is needed now by all is definitive action and in that regard, on the issue of Food Security, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation’s World Food Summit on 16-18 November may prove critical.
In agriculture we have identified nine key binding constraints that hinder development of the sector. Those constraints must be addressed. I note that that issue is perhaps the pivotal item for discussion today and I am hopeful that Member States will agree to commit the necessary resources to remove or alleviate these constraints.
In our work in the Agriculture sector, the Region and Member States have benefitted significantly from support from our development partners. In this regard we note with regret that the term of office for the current Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Co-operation in Agriculture (IICA), Dr. Chelston Brathwaite is coming to an end. We at the Secretariat and I am sure, the Member States as well, would wish to convey our sincere thanks and appreciation for the significant support received from Dr. Brathwaite and IICA during his tenure. Today, we must use the opportunity of this Meeting to consider the issue of the prospective candidates to succeed Dr Brathwaite, with a view to making a choice that would ensure the continuation of that support for the Community.
Honourable Ministers, in closing, my challenge to you is to let Agriculture take the lead in our development efforts. To that end we must ensure that at the conclusion of this Special Meeting, we would have made critical progress towards the implementation of the priority Regional actions identified in the Liliendaal Declaration. Then that seat for Agriculture at the table of our development efforts will no doubt be at the very head.
I thank you.
