With rising concerns about food insecurity, CARICOM Heads who met in Georgetown at an agricultural conference have listed four urgent priorities including tearing down trade barriers and scaling up regional transportation.
The “Agri-Investment Forum and Expo: Investing in Vision 25 by 2025”, took place at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, Liliendaal, Georgetown on May 19 and 20 and was organised by Government of Guyana in collaboration with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat.
It was attended by a representative group of CARICOM Heads of Government from Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Guyana, Montserrat and Trinidad and Tobago and other high-level representatives from The Bahamas, Grenada, Jamaica, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Suriname, along with regional and international institutions.
According to a conference statement dated May 20, the forum was used to discuss the current “grave” global situation of the shortages and high prices of imported food; the shortage and increased prices of fertilisers and other agricultural inputs; as well as the “severe problems” affecting transportation and supply.
It noted too that the representative group acknowledged that member states of CARICOM have been deeply impacted by the developments which have resulted in a “dramatic” increase in the cost of food, exposing still further the region’s food insecurity due to its vulnerability to external influences. It was also recognised that within CARICOM, member states do possess the capacity to attain a high level of food security for the Community as a whole, “provided that urgent action is taken to establish sustainable machinery, and to adhere to the terms of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.”
It was agreed that failure to implement former President Bharrat Jagdeo’s initiative – the 2005 “Frame-work for the repositioning of Caribbean agriculture” – which was agreed upon by CARICOM Governments, served to stymie the Community’s capacity to safeguard against the impact of the present crisis. In this regard, the release stated, the Heads welcomed the timely and important vision of the agricultural development plan presented by President Irfaan Ali of Guyana, at the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM in March 2022. This plan, it noted, is aligned with the “Advancing the CARICOM Agri-Food Systems Agenda: Prioritising Food and Nutrition Security and the 25 by 2025 Plan”.
The Group therefore resolved to recommend, for the adoption by all CARICOM Heads of Government, four priority areas to address food security “urgently and sustainably”, including through the “speedy implementation” of the decisions taken:
Food insecurity
The agricultural plan, proposed by Guyana’s President Ali to the CARICOM Heads of Government Conference in March 2022, should be fully implemented as swiftly as possible, with the involvement of all relevant stakeholders. In this regard, President Ali was requested to mandate the Ministerial Task Force on Food Security to propose an implementation schedule for urgent consideration by Heads of Government.
Regional transportation
It was recognised that the lack of adequate regional transportation by sea and air is an obstacle to the transportation of food within the region, and it was determined that it should be overcome within the shortest possible time frame. As such, Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados, together with the Heads of Government in the quasi-Cabinet responsible for Transport (Maritime and Aviation) and Agriculture, have been requested to complete a proposal for establishing adequate and sustainable regional transportation, after consultation with the Caribbean private sector, the international donor community, and multilateral development agencies, for consideration by Heads of Government in July 2022. In making this recommendation, the Group was heartened to be informed by the Caribbean Development Bank of its willingness to use its best efforts to mobilise resources in this effort.
Trade barriers
In recognition of the fact that the biggest inhibitors to the development of agri-food systems within the region are trade barriers, particularly non-tariff barriers, and that this issue requires political consensus and determination to prevent it, the Group recommended that a Special Committee immediately prepare proposals, with time-bound deadlines, for eliminating such trade barriers. It was decided that the Special Committee should be convened by the Minister in the quasi-Cabinet responsible for the Caribbean Single Market and Economy, and its proposals for implementation should be presented at a Special Meeting of Heads of Government in the third quarter of 2022. During the conference, the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry took aim at Trinidad and Tobago over what it said has been longstanding non-tariff barriers to Guyanese goods.
Women and youth
The importance of the participation of women and youth in agriculture did not go unnoticed. As such it was determined that in an effort to enlarge the sector’s contribution to the Gross Domestic Product of national economies as well as to empower the two groups to share in the earnings that can be generated by a vibrant agricultural sector, the CARICOM Secretariat should be authorised to commission an urgent study, for consideration by the Special Meeting of Heads of Government proposed for the third quarter of this year, on ways to attract and expand the participation of youth and women by at least 20% by 2025. The terms of reference of the study, it was decided, should include machinery for providing credit, crop insurance, contract purchasing of produce, and training including the use of modern technology.
