CARICOM agriculture requires new finance, says Guyana’s president
Caribbean News Network
CARICOM agriculture requires new finance, says Guyana’s president
31 May 2007
GEORGETOWN, Guyana: If the agricultural sectors of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries are to remain viable amidst reformations to longstanding preferential arrangements and other emerging threats, then the injection of new and added finance into the Region’s agriculture is necessary for it to survive and remain viable.
This is the line of action being proposed to CARICOM Heads of State, Agriculture and Finance Ministers at the Agriculture Donors Conference on June 2 in Port of Spain, Trinidad by the Region’s lead Head of State for Agriculture President Bharrat Jagdeo.
Joining them for the special conference will be bilateral, multilateral, and regional donors. Potential donors will also be targeted to widen the financial support base of the Region’s agriculture.
The conference is expected to yield financial and technical support for the agricultural thematic areas and the supporting projects.
On the Conference’s agenda for discussion will be major challenges facing the Region’s agriculture sector which include: inadequate infrastructural development, technology transfer and food security and the need for increased investment in the sector to enable its expansion and diversification towards sustainability and international competitiveness.
The conference aimed at resuscitating financial flows and boosting technical support for diversified agricultural initiatives is being held against the background of the launch of the CARICOM Single Market (CSM), the imminent establishment of a framework policy for the Single Economy in 2008, and eroding preferential access for traditional agriculture crops.
The Jagdeo Initiative ‘Strengthening Agriculture for Sustainable Development’ will form the basis of talks during the meeting. It has been articulated that coupled with the Regional Transformation Programme for Agriculture (RTPA) international competitiveness of the Caribbean agricultural sectors could be achieved.
At the 18th Inter-Sessional Meeting held in Kingstown, St Vincent and the Grenadines in February following the special COTED meeting, Heads of the Region agreed to President Jagdeo spearheading the exercise.
Jagdeo maintains that even with threats to the sector and the emergence of innovative foreign exchange attractive sectors as tourism and services, agriculture still has and will always play a decisive role in the Region’s prosperity.
For the role of the agriculture sector to be stabilised and concretised, President Jagdeo said Heads need to first recognise the importance of the sector and give impetus to its development through implementing special initiatives.
The initiative which has garnered regional support as a sure way of transforming the state of the agriculture sector, seeks to alleviate binding constraints to its development and create the enabling environment to encourage a revival of investment in agriculture facilitating the transformation process.
The Jagdeo Initiative strategically coupled with RTPA and other CARICOM Agriculture strategies, is expected to create an enabling investment and production environment, effective technology development and transfer; develop specific commodities and enterprises; increased food security and sustainable development.
