While it is expected that planning for the February 24-26 Barbados Agro Fest is, by now, well underway, the region is yet to be afforded the full details of what is expected to be an event that is expected to help light the way in the matter of the direction in which the Caribbean is headed in pursuit of strengthening its food security bona fides. Accordingly, it would be more than worthwhile to secure a region-wide update on the pace and progress of planning for an event which, contextually, has a significance that goes beyond the interests of the host country.
Here, what comes to mind immediately, is the opportunity afforded by this year’s Agro Fest to secure a progress report on the planned creation of a regional Food Security Terminal, an envisaged storehouse for emergency food supplies, an initiative that has been partially assigned to Barbados by the region as a whole. Last year’s decision on a regional food security backup arose out of an agreed recognition that while the region remains far from being a basket case insofar as availability of food is concerned, wider global food security challenges fully justify the creation of a mechanism to help shield the Caribbean from such an eventuality. Assessments of the food security bona fides of the Caribbean undertaken recently have revealed that some of the smaller, more vulnerable islands of the region experience levels of food insecurity, their food security credentials having been blighted mostly by fragile agriculture infrastructure, including climate conditions that are inhospitable to sustainable food cultivation.