(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Antigua and Barbuda will be a hive of activity next week as stakeholders in agriculture converge there for the eleventh Caribbean Week of Agriculture. The week of activities – 12-20 October, 2012, will be officially opened on Wednesday 17 October, 2012.

This year, the Region’s premier agriculture event is being convened under the theme `Celebrating Youth and Gender in Caribbean Agriculture – Each Endeavouring All Achieving’. The activities will be held at two locations – the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium and the Grand Royal Antiguan Beach Resort - and will range from a CWA Trade Show, where the Region’s rich, diverse agricultural products will be on display, to various workshops covering themes such as climate change and youth and rural modernization.
A special meeting of the Caribbean Community’s (CARICOM) Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) on Agriculture will be held during the week.

Other activities of the CWA are a two-day Media Science Workshop hosted by the African Caribbean Pacific Group of Countries (ACP)- European Union (EU) Technical Centre for Cooperation on Agriculture and Rural Development (CTA) and the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), a seminar on family agriculture, and meetings of various agricultural organisations.

A pageant, one of the cultural events on the CWA calendar, will be held on 18 October. According to pageant organisers, seven delegates will compete in five segments – all on the theme of Agriculture - for the title of Ms. Caribbean Agriculture.

Caribbean Week of Agriculture was conceptualized by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and is held under the aegis of the Alliance for Sustainable Development of Agriculture and the Rural Milieu (The Alliance). The main collaborating entities are the CARICOM Secretariat, IICA, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and CARDI. The ACP-EU Technical Centre for Cooperation on Agriculture and Rural Development (CTA) is a major partner and sponsor of CWA activities.