FAO aligns work to assist Regional Agri Plans

The United Nations Food& Agriculture Organization is aligning its global, regional, sub-regional and national work processes to cohesively assist the development strategies of Caribbean countries, the Director General of FAO Dr. José Graziano da Silva said during the opening of the Meeting of Caribbean Ministers of Agriculture with the Director General.

“This helps ensure that our efforts are coherent, add up to more than isolated actions, and contribute to your national development plans,” Director General Graziano da Silva said before the delegation moved to closed meetings at the British Colonial Hilton, Tuesday, February 24, 2015.

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He said the FAO is organizing its work around regional initiatives to accomplish this, and the Organization has three regional initiatives for Latin America and the Caribbean. All of them benefit the Caribbean.

The Director General said the first one supports the region’s food and nutrition security efforts, and the second regional initiative strengthens family farming.

“In the Caribbean, as in many developing countries, family farmers are crucial actors in increasing local availability of food and reducing hunger and malnutrition.”

He added that the third regional initiative works to improve food and feed systems and is specifically designed for the Caribbean. It aims to:

• Strengthen and add value to local production;
• Recover local products, increasing the offer of healthy, nutritious and fresh food;
• Reduce the dependency on food imports, and
• Provide employment opportunities.

Director General Graziano da Silva explained that the regional initiative is a joint effort involving FAO, governments, and partners such as the Caribbean Agricultural Research & Development Institute, the Caribbean AgriBusiness Association, the Caribbean Farmers Network, the University of the West Indies and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture.

“It is funded through a combination of FAO regular program resources and contributions from actors such as the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the Caribbean Development Bank, and Petrocaribe.

“Our FAO sub-regional Coordinator for the Caribbean will explain in greater detail this initiative and discuss with you our ongoing work in the region. We look forward to listening to your views.”

The host Minister of the meeting, The Bahamas Minister of Agriculture, Marine Resources and Local Government the Hon. V. Alfred Gray said virtually every economy in CARICOM, with the exception of the three continental states (Guyana, Belize and Suriname), depends on tourism as the main engine that drives their economy and serves as the greatest foreign exchange earner.

“Tourism has literally changed our economies as well as the role agriculture plays in our various economies. Some of us may not have recognized this change, however all of us have become food dependent, hence our huge food import bill of between $5 and $6 billion a year for the region.”

Minister Gray said the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Ministers of Agriculture should seek to move make it mandatory for each member state to contribute to a common fund for Agricultural Development.

“To kick start such a Fund, contributions from the various countries should be based on each state’s ability to contribute to such a fund. The Fund should be used to lift the technical skills of the human resources which are engaged in agriculture, such as the small farmers and those engaged in cottage industries, many of whom are women and small food processors.

“The organizational structure of such a Fund should comprise representatives of commodity groups such as the Caribbean Poultry Association, the Caribbean Network of Rural Women Production and the Caribbean Farmers Network (CaFAN) who should play leading roles, in this paradigm shift as we seek to advance regional agriculture and move from Regional food dependency to regional self-sufficiency.”