(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Governments in the Region could not alone invest in agriculture; the private sector needed to get on board, Mr. James Moss-Solomon, Head of the Task Force of the CARICOM Agriculture Investment Forum said.

At the conclusion of the Forum Saturday 7 June 2008, at the Guyana International Conference Centre (GICC), Mr. Moss-Solomon told representatives of the media that the private sector needed to “step up to the plate.” The private sector’s partnership with the public sector was necessary for growth in the agriculture sector, he said.

The Forum was a private sector-driven event and followed the Agriculture Donor Conference held in Trinidad and Tobago last year. The Forum was geared at networking and creating linkages with stakeholders in the regional agriculture sector.

“Agriculture holds so much potential; we cannot ask governments alone to bear the burden,” Mr. Moss-Solomon stressed.

The private sector’s enhanced role in the sector was also the focus of a presentation by Senator the Hon. Arnold Piggott, Minister of Agriculture, Land and Marine Resources of Trinidad and Tobago.

Alluding to his country’s private sector-led and -driven mega farms concept, Minister Piggott said that he intended to submit his country’s farm concept template to the Community so that duplication of regional efforts in food production could be avoided.

One of the major outcomes of the forum, Mr. Moss-Solomon said was the fact that more than 150 stakeholders were meeting and talking about the agriculture sector.

He also referred to engaging assistance from Latin America, particularly from those countries that were represented at the Forum. The Community, he said, could learn from them and they were offering to help. Assistance may be in the area of training in extension services and a technical cooperation arrangement in this regard was possible, he said.