CORAL SPRING, Trelawny — Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining Floyd Green is calling for action following days of discussions at the Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA), held at the Ocean Coral Spring Resort here.

“When we finish COTED [Council for Trade and Economic Development] the real work starts, because if all we do here is talk and it doesn’t impact the farmer or the fisher in our respective countries, we would have wasted our time in Jamaica,” Green said during a press conference last Friday. He was speaking shortly before Caribbean ministers of agriculture and other stakeholders met for COTED.

The 20th Caribbean Week of Agriculture is guided by regional governance through The Alliance for Sustainable Development of Agriculture and the Rural Milieu, and features ministerial leadership from COTED on agriculture.

“We must implement our action, our talk. We must ensure that COTED is tracking the commitments that we have made, and that when we come back to CWA we are not discussing the same things over and over but that we’re moving forward and building upon the foundation that has been set,” he insisted.

Since September 27 more than 1,000 attendees have been sharing ideas and discussing policies aimed at improving agriculture across the Caribbean region.

“We have had over 14 ministers; we have had multiple, multiple delegations from over 40 countries join us here in Jamaica, and for us, it’s with a clear purpose — which is to advance the work across the region to transform our agricultural ecosystem,” he declared. Among the areas examined, Green said, was the issue of employment and the treatment of labour within the region.

“We also have to ensure that the issue of labour is dealt with. And we believe that Dominica has a wonderful model that they have implemented [and], as a region, we can look at [it] to see if we can treat with the issue that all of us are having in relation to the workforce, to drive the transformation of Caribbean agriculture,” he said. He also pointed to positive developments emerging from the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM), which he said would benefit the fisheries sector across the region.

“We had an excellent CRFM ministerial council earlier…and in fact, that ministerial council approved 12 resolutions and three new protocols under the Caribbean Community common fisheries policies. The protocols address marine spatial planning, aquatic food traceability, combating illegal and unregulated fishing. Clearly the practical implications are significant,” he stated.

Green stressed that the discussions and decisions made during CWA should translate into tangible benefits across the region as work continues to strengthen agriculture and related sectors. “Ultimately, our farmers and fishers should experience the benefits of CWA20 through better support, improved productivity, and more dependable markets,” he declared.

“Our consumers across the region should benefit from a more reliable supply of food; and our countries, all our agricultural ecosystems, should become better able to withstand disruptions,” he added.

However, while highlighting the importance of the discussions held during the week, Green noted that several key issues still needed to be addressed, particularly during the subsequent COTED meeting.

He said greater attention must be given to maritime logistics to ensure the region has the connectivity needed to move agricultural and fisheries products efficiently. “We still have to treat with our standards and harmonisation of our standards across the region so that our products, our agricultural produce, our fisheries produce can move seamlessly across our borders,” he explained.

At the same time, Jamaica’s agriculture minister highlighted several major developments announced last week which he said would help to strengthen the region’s agricultural sector.

“We’ve been able to already announce movement in that direction, and it started from [last] Sunday with [the] Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) indicating their establishment of a regional centre of excellence for the Caribbean right here in Jamaica.

“That gives us an opportunity to put innovation right across the region and to bring useful research and technology closer to the people producing food,” he added.

He also highlighted IICA’s efforts to work with Trinidad to develop a regional, quality seed programme in collaboration with the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute. “That will help us to ensure that we have the planting material needed in this changing climate,” he stated.