-Special COTED meet hears
Jamaica Agriculture Minister Christopher Tufton says that the regional focus on the agriculture sector has not veered beyond its contribution to GDP and he urged that real attention be paid to it in the face of rising commodity prices globally.
Tufton made these points at the opening session of the Special Caricom Council for Trade and Economic Deve-lopment (COTED) meeting yesterday. He told his colleagues that the region runs a serious risk of undervaluing the role of agriculture and insisted that it includes more that just food on the table.
“Agriculture is indeed more than food on the table and provides the basis for a manufacturing sector; it supports tourism, contributes to the transportation sector and is a significant driver of rural development. Taken within this wider context, there is no sector as critical as the agricultural sector, particularly at this point in time,” he said. Tufton who chaired the special COTED, underscored that there is still a significant gap between words and statement of intent on one hand and real action, on the other. To this end, he said that urgent action needs to be taken as regards building the region’s research capacity in agricultural production and productivity.
Further to this, Tufton said he believed that current attempts to address the rising food prices seemed more focused on trade related matters to augment supply of foods from extra-regional sources. He contended that enough attention was not being paid to the more urgent matter of building national capacities to produce more food and to produce it effectively. In this regard, he questioned the viability of the Caribbean Agricultural Research Development Institute (CARDI), the flagship regional facility. Tufton said not only has CARDI been constant for the last several years, “But so little of it is devoted to real research as against administration, that calls into question the viability of this institution.”
Tufton said too Jamaica, on Caricom’s behalf, has concluded a MoU with the Spanish Agency for Interna-tional Development for the establishment of a Regional Centre of Excellence for Advanced Agricultural Tech-nologies at Bodles. He said the intention is for this centre to lead the charge in restoring the region’s vastly eroded research capacity and focus on practical research surrounding concrete issues affecting agricultural production, processing and food storage. The minister also said that the region’s food and health and safety infrastructure is not up to par; seriously constraining its ability to take part in internal trade. He said too poor transportation links among territories render regional trade extremely expensive.
Touching on the Jagdeo Initiative on agriculture, Tufton said the current food crisis must lend more impetus and urgency to the implementation of the actions outlined in it. At the same time, he said his government wants to collaborate with Guyana for expertise in growing rice in Jamaica. Similarly, Jamaica would collaborate in those areas where it possesses certain skills and competencies.
Leading the way
Even as Guyana and many other Caribbean nations have started to take steps to cushion the impact of high food prices, no country can do it alone, Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud told the meeting. He said that with President Bharrat Jagdeo as Caricom’s lead head with responsibility for agriculture, Guyana is committed to carrying out its role in the regional response to the food crisis. “Our economy is primarily agriculture-based. We have an abundance of arable land and vast reserves of water resources,” he said.
However, Persaud called for a specific plan of action with a timeline and assigned responsibilities for activities; an agreed mechanism which allows Caribbean countries to access each other’s markets in the short term and a commitment from the Caricom Secretariat and lead agencies to be more accountable in the implementation of regional initiatives. “We as a region must ensure that we are both food secure and food sovereign … food sovereignty implies that feeding our people is a regional and national responsibility,” he explained. Persaud pointed out that Caricom’s 12th Special Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government in December had agreed on a number of measurers that were to be instituted immediately to cushion the impact of escalating prices and ensure adequate supply and distribution of food intra-regionally.
Persaud said he was worried that those measures, decided on nearly six months ago, have still not been implemented. To this end, he contended that there was need to investigate why directives from Heads of Government are not being implemented. In this regard, he urged too that the Secretariat needed to steer and lead the process and if it cannot do this, “perhaps it is time to review the mechanisms within the Caricom Secretariat.” Persaud also mentioned the ongoing ‘Grow more’ campaign which the government has embarked on to ensure adequate food supply for Guyana. The minister said this was a role for every Caricom citizen.
Persaud added that the CARICOM food bill today exceeds the last estimate of “US$3.5 billion annually. This will climb higher if we sustain our dependence on imported food”, he said noting that “even if it is currently cheaper to import food out the region rather than grow it locally, the unpredictability of future global food prices and the uncertainty over supplies means that if the Caribbean is to achieve real food security and food sovereignty, we must increase local food production and encourage consumption of what we produce.”
Meanwhile, Caricom De-puty Secretary-General Am-bassador Lolita Applewhaite, who opened the COTED, commended the Caribbean Poultry Association for their efforts to find alternative inputs into the production of animal feed. She said the results of such an initiative could go a long way in reducing the cost of poultry and poultry products.
At the meeting the Association approached the ministers for endorsement about a proposal for research in this regard.
The meeting was hosted at Le Meridien Pegasus.
