(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Chairman of the of the 32nd Special Meeting of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) on Agriculture, the Honourable Ezekiel Joseph, Minister of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries and Forestry of Saint Lucia urged his colleague Ministers on Friday to implement the decisions taken at the one-day meeting.

Speaking at the opening of the meeting in Guyana on Friday, Minister Joseph stressed that much work had taken place in agriculture throughout the years and the Region had reached a juncture where implementation of decisions in relation to the sector needed to be pursued vigorously.

“We don’t have the luxury of time. Time is not on our side,” stressed the Minister.

He added that while it is recognised that there are several constraints that have impacted on the pace at which development in agriculture had taken place in the Region, the appropriate action must be taken to remove the constraints.

“We need to set up systems to assist with dealing with constraints and we also need to identify bottlenecks to implementation and take the necessary action,” said Minister Joseph.

He told his colleagues that the people of the Region expected nothing less.