GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) – The annual Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA) takes place next month amidst concerns that the region runs the risk of moving from a health to a food security crisis.

Programme Manager, Agricultural and Agro-Industrial Development at the Guyana-based Caribbean Community (Caricom) Secretariat, Shaun Baugh, said that the October 4-8 event, comes at a time when the region is still grappling with the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has not only killed and infected thousands of people in the Caribbean, but also severely affected the economic situation of regional countries.

“If we are not careful we will move from a health crisis into a food security crisis,” Baugh said, adding that the CWA presents an opportunity for a “game changing event.

“There will be a lot of technical sessions that have to do with the common farmer, the man who plants, the woman plants within the region. New technologies, climate smart agriculture, new methods of seed propagation, new methods of irrigation and so on,” he said, adding that these presentations will be done by partner agencies, such as the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) as well as the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).

CWA, will be held virtually under “Transforming our food systems” and the organisers said that it reflects the food systems thrust that the world is now undertaking, given the current challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Baugh said that presentations will also come from the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) given that the Blue Economy “is the new thrust…in the region”.

“There is a lot of untapped economic potential,” he added.