MINISTER of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining Floyd Green hosted a high-level ministerial meeting of Caribbean ministers of agriculture and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) at the AC Hotel by Marriot in Kingston, on September 18, to discuss opportunities for regional collaboration and to agree on strategic regional projects to be presented to the FAO for support.

Five Caribbean member states participated in the one-day working meeting which was chaired by Floyd Green and included ministerial representation from Saboto Caesar of St Vincent and the Grenadines; Jomo Campbell of The Bahamas; and Adrian Thomas of Grenada. The minister of agriculture of Guyana was represented by advisor – Caricom Agri-Food System Dr Richard Blair.

For the high-level meeting Jamaica also welcomed the assistant director general and FAO regional representative for Latin America and the Caribbean, Mario Lubetkin, as well as the FAO subregional coordinator for the Caribbean, Dr Renata Clarke. Also in attendance were Dr Crispim Moreira, FAO representative for Jamaica, The Bahamas and Belize and Winston Pinnock, Bahamas ambassador to the FAO.

The ministerial meeting provided the opportunity for the ministers of agriculture of the region to engage the FAO in discussions on priority programmes, projects and initiatives for the Caribbean and to explore potential areas for greater support within the FAO.

The one-day working meeting discussed several issues in relation to food security, climate change, and further development of the regional agricultural sector; and agreed strategies for enhanced collaboration and coordination among Caribbean nations around shared priorities in the region, strengthened subregional representation within the FAO, increasing south-south cooperation, and enhanced collaboration with regional funding and development institutions.

The meeting also provided the platform for the ministers of agriculture to conceptualise several strategic infrastructure projects to be presented to the FAO for support that would enhance agriculture in the region. Consequently, the ministers agreed on several regional priority project areas including advanced technological applications in irrigation, protected agriculture and aquaculture/mariculture to drive further development in the region.

Given the specific challenges faced by Caribbean nations and the impact that climate change continues to have on agricultural growth, in highlighting the importance of these project areas, especially irrigation infrastructure, Green asserted that this should be a priority for the region to drive the Caricom Agri Food Systems Agenda 25 per cent by 2025 initiative to reduce food imports and improve overall food security.

“Jamaica has gone through one of its driest times ever, the reality is that it is also true for the rest of the region. The climate has changed, we are seeing different weather patterns; we are seeing higher temperatures, and the access to water has become more important than ever before in our history,” Green said.

The FAO assistant director-general also expressed that water is a priority area for the FAO stating that “Managing water resources in the Caribbean is becoming increasingly challenging, and we are exploring ways to provide more technical assistance in this field. We are always looking for ways to cooperate and collaborate toward common objectives,” he outlined.

With the consideration of school feeding as a major food security strategy and safety net for children, the ministers also agreed that a regional school feeding programme should be developed that will expand on the existing programmes being implemented in member states across the region.

The meeting ended with a consensus that, with the support of the FAO subregional office for the Caribbean, the project concepts emanating from the discussions will be further developed for presentation at follow up meeting on October 12, 2023 during the upcoming 17th Caribbean Week of Agriculture 2023 scheduled to be held in The Bahamas from October 9-13, 2023 and thereafter for the consideration of the FAO as priority areas of focus in the region at the 38th Session of the Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean (LARC 38) scheduled to be held in Guyana in March 2024.