New day dawns for agriculture

Policy-makers and other stakeholders in the Region’s agriculture sector have been challenged to quickly move forward with renewed resolve to ensure increased productivity and competitiveness in the agriculture sector.

Mr. Joseph Cox, new Assistant Secretary-General (ASG), Trade and Economic Integration at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat, threw out the challenge Thursday at the opening ceremony of a Special Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) on Agriculture.

The two-day Meeting is being held at the CARICOM Secretariat under the Chairmanship of the Hon Eugene Hamilton, Minister of Agriculture, Marine Resources, Cooperatives, Environment  and Human Settlement, St. Kitts and Nevis.

Mr. Cox, who took up his position at the Georgetown-based Secretariat a mere five weeks ago, pointed out that for agriculture in the Region to achieve its full potential, stakeholders needed to “turn the pages of time and recognise that it is indeed a new day”.

Using the “new day” as his refrain, the Assistant Secretary-General argued that agriculture was a business and not a social welfare programme. And, given that some of the subsectors that were previously lucrative were now “moribund”, he added that the time was ripe to seek out areas of opportunity where the Community had a competitive and comparative advantage.

Remarks by Assistant Secretary-General, Trade and Economic Integration 8 October 2015