Caribbean commits to building resilience in agriculture | New York Carib News – NYCaribNews

The regional agriculture ministers met with their counterparts from the wider American hemisphere at the Conference of Ministers of Agriculture 2021, which was held virtually, under the theme of Sustainable Agrifood Systems, the Engine of Development of the Americas.

The world is facing many challenges and the Americas has its own challenges. Specifically, we in the Caribbean need to build greater resilience to climate-change-related natural disasters, said Indar Weir, the Barbados Minister of Agriculture and Food Security.

In Barbados, this year we have had to endure the passage of Hurricane Elsa and we are still in the hurricane season, so we must ensure that the entire Caribbean is protected, he said, thanking the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) for its work to achieve agricultural sustainability in the Caribbean and commended the Director-General, Manuel Otero, for his re-election to head the organization for a second term.

Jamaicas Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Floyd Green, lamented the fact that his countrys productive sector suffered tremendous losses because of the passage of Tropical Storm Ida.

Now is the time to work to transform agrifood systems and that is what the Caricom member countries are doing. Climate change challenges are enormous, he said, while expressing his appreciation for IICAs contributions in assisting his country to introduce greater technological innovation to benefit small farmers.

His Guyanese counterpart, Zulfikar Mustapha, said the region is one of the most vulnerable to climate change and natural disasters in general.Our economies and production systems have suffered the impact of the volcano eruption in St Vincent and the Grenadines, the earthquake in Haiti and the floods in Guyana and Suriname that destroyed crops and animals. Now we are tackling an outbreak of African swine fever in the Dominican Republic. It is critical that we strengthen our agrifood systems.

Our task is to create agriculture and tourism linkages and to develop public-private partnerships that allow us to implement climate-smart technology and digital agriculture. We need financing for climate mitigation and adaptation today more than ever. The support of IICA and other international institutions is imperative to ensure greater resilience, Mustapha added.

He said that Guyana, with its vast tracts of agricultural land, is one of the guarantors of Caribbean food security and confirmed that lately the country has made headway in modernizing its production.

The challenges are many, but the conditions are within our reach, he said.

St Vincent and the Grenadines Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries, Rural Transformation, Industry and Labour, Saboto Caesar, congratulated the newly re-elected IICA Director General for his work to build agrifood system resilience in the hemisphere during the pandemic and expressed his commitment to building agricultural sustainability.

We know that much remains to be done and that things will not be easy from here forward. We will have to face daunting challenges as we push ahead to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Agenda 2030, but our aim is to guarantee the food security and sovereignty of our people, he added.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture of St Kitts-Nevis, Ron Dublin-Collins, explained that his country is seeking to transform agriculture to better position the sector to ensure food security.

We are making every effort. We know that the sector faces challenges and hope to continue collaborating with countries in the region and with IICA. We embrace hope and know that we can achieve our objectives.

Also participating in the conference was the newly appointed Caricom Secretary General, Dr Carla Barnett, who said that the Caribbean countries are attempting to transform their agrifood systems, while also boosting production resilience, in a bid to achieve a 25 per cent cut in the high level of food imports by 2025.

Transforming agrifood systems will require funding from public and private entities and from national and international partners. To do so, we will need innovative financial instruments and investment models that allow us to introduce new technologies to small producers, so that they can begin to employ solar energy, hydroponics, aquaponics, smart greenhouses and water harvesting and storage, said Barnett.

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Caribbean commits to building resilience in agriculture | New York Carib News - NYCaribNews