The Caribbean Community/CARIFORUM, the Government of Italy and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) signed a US$5 million Food Security Project in Milan on 21 March 2003.

The Project is Italy's response to a US$26.2 million programme submitted by CARICOM/CARIFORUM to a Meeting on Food Security at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Washington, DC in November last year.

Food security has become a priority issue for CARICOM countries, as earnings from the traditional export crops - sugar, bananas, rice and citrus - contracted sharply over the decade of the 1990s even as food imports climbed. The Region has been importing increasingly more food than it has been exporting. It is a net food importer.

Speaking at the signing, which was witnessed by the President of the IDB and the President of the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), Assistant Secretary-General of CARICOM, Byron Blake said "the project responds to three key concerns of CARICOM countries, namely small farmer development, irrigation and training". Mr. Blake continued "the development and approval of a project of this complexity in less than three months is most unusual and reflects the grasp of the urgency of the food security problem by the Government of Italy and FAO".

The Project was developed by a team from Italy, the FAO and the CARICOM Secretariat. It is the first Project to be approved under a Trust Fund which the Government of Italy has placed in FAO in Rome.