Jagdeo Initiative high on COTED agenda

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana)     The Jagdeo Initiative is one of the key subjects that will be considered when Ministers of Agriculture gather on Friday for a Special Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) on Agriculture.

The Special COTED Meeting is a staple of the Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA) which is being held in Georgetown this year and which draws to a close on Friday after eight days of activity including technical meetings, workshops, field visits and an exhibition and trade show.

Ms. Nisa Surujbally, Programme Manager, Agriculture and Industry at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat said Thursday that lead agencies and governments that manage each of the nine key binding constraints to agriculture, which form the basis for the Jagdeo Initiative, will present their findings and updates to the COTED meeting.
The Jagdeo Initiative on Agriculture, conceptualised by the former President of Guyana Mr Bharat Jagdeo is a strategy formulated to develop agriculture in the Region. It identifies and defines nine key, critical and binding constraints to the development of the agriculture sector in the Caribbean region and also practical interventions at both the regional and national levels to alleviate these constraints.
“This year we have been able to show the Ministers a huge chunk of work that has come out of these lead agencies and governments and these reports will be presented,” Ms. Surujbally said.
Barriers to intra-regional trade and the impact of climate change on agriculture are among the other matters that will also be addressed at the one-day meeting.
“Coming out of our COTED and the press conference that will ensue, we will hear from the ministers about how they see the future,” she said.