NASSAU, Bahamas (CMC) -The Caribbean Farmer of the Year will be announced on Tuesday at the opening of the annual Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA) taking place in the Bahamas this week, October 9 – 13.

The week of activities which begins on Monday is being held under the theme “Accelerating Vision 20 by 2025” and will include seminars, expositions and a trade show.

The CWA provides a forum for the key decision-makers in the public and private sectors within the Region to highlight the importance of agriculture and rural life to the economic, social and environmental stability of Member States.

It also affords the major stakeholders in agriculture and related sectors the opportunity to forge a common vision for the development of agriculture and the enhancement of rural life.

This would be the 17th CWA. The first was held in Trinidad and Tobago in 1999.

The Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA) was conceptualized by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) as a facility to place agriculture and rural life on the “front burner” of regional integration activities.

The objectives for the week –long activity were to give key decision-makers in the public and private sectors access to better acknowledge of the importance of agriculture and rural life to the economic, social and environmental stability of the region; and for major stakeholders in agriculture and related sectors to have an opportunity to dialogue and forge a common vision for the repositioning of agriculture and the enhancement of rural life.

The CWA is the premier event on the Agriculture calendar in the Caribbean Region.  It is convened under the aegis of the Alliance for Sustainable Development of Agriculture and the Rural Milieu (‘The Alliance’).  From the inaugural meeting in 1998, the two main collaborating agencies were IICA and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat.

In 2002, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) joined IICA and CARICOM to establish a core group which functions as the Secretariat of The Alliance. Since then, the four agencies have collaborated on the management and logistics necessary for the convening and servicing of meetings of The Alliance as well as the myriad of activities during the CWA.

In 2003, the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) became a major partner and sponsor of the CWA activities.