Jamaica’s Minister of Agriculture Floyd Green has tagged climate change as the most dramatic challenge facing the region.
Speaking on the margins of the 38th Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean (CLAC) on Wednesday, Green, also responsible for fisheries and mining, shared his thoughts on the conference and the issues facing the sector in his homeland.
“Like most places across the region, our biggest issue right now is climate change and the changes in temperature.” He disclosed that last year, Jamaica saw its hottest and driest year on record with the longest drought recorded. He added that the weather changed drastically into the rainy season which led to intense flooding, “The changes in the weather is the most dramatic challenge that faces our region.”
Despite this however, the minister is optimistic about strengthening ties with Guyana along with facilitating trade. “I had a good sit down with the Minister of Agriculture in Guyana we had a bilateral, looking at how we could help each other.” Green shared that both countries have “long traditions” in agriculture with different crops. “Jamaica is well known for some of their vegetable lines, our spices, and Guyana is well known for its rice.” He disclosed that the sit-down produced ideas on how both countries have advantages and various ways to work together thereby enhancing each other’s agricultural sectors.
“[I am] definitely looking forward to working with Guyana on aquaponics and aquaculture; it is something we are also looking at in Jamaica.” As it relates to developing the young talent within his country in the field of agriculture, he said, “Jamaica is leading a charge to engage more young people in agriculture across the region. One of the things I would have presented here is a regional youth strategy to get all CARICOM countries to say – how can we get more young people involved?” He also emphasised the rich history which Jamaica boasts within forage clubs and the youth in agriculture programme, and this, he explained, will be one of the areas to be considered for a partnership so as to share this expertise.
Meanwhile, Coordinator of the Youth Agricultural Homestead Programme with the Ministry of Agriculture in Trinidad and Tobago, Anesha Beach, shared some insights and challenges faced in the sector within her country. “We have a robust agriculture sector in Trinidad and Tobago, but it is not as robust and expansive as Guyana and Jamaica.” She pointed out that Trinidad and Tobago has an aging agriculture population and that the Homestead Programme will encourage youth agriculture entrepreneurship. “Right now we have 800 young people who are currently training in agriculture and when they have completed their training, they will receive two acres of land and a TT$20,000 grant along with a home on the land.”
The agri-processed products from Guyana were well received by many countries within the Caribbean with Trinidad and Tobago expressing interest in having some of the Guyanese brands on the shelves in various stores in Trinidad. “The pepper jellies, the casareep, and the boxed pepper pot are things that are popular here, but is not that well known in Trinidad unless you have Guyanese roots. These various products are some things that we would love to see more of in Trinidad.” Beach noted that her country is now leaning more toward agro-processing and Guyana is regarded as a trailblazer with the innovative and unique products made locally.
The Bahamas Minister of Agriculture and Marine Resources, Jomo Campbell, shared what he appreciates about Guyana. “Guyana is doing such a tremendous job in the agri industry. Some great takeaways for us is the fact that we have (an) example just next door and we don’t have to go to Europe or across the Atlantic to see examples of better production, better nutrition, better environment and better life; they are established well here in Guyana”
Campbell stated that he feels proud to see such results coming from the Caribbean region. “We look forward to partnering with the government and people of Guyana to better our agri industry back in The Bahamas.” He also noted that the two countries have a shared vision of “25 by 2025,” which helps when reaching out to the persons with a similar vision. This initiative aims to reduce imports of food by 25% by 2025.
Dominica’s Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Blue and Green Economy, Roland Royer spoke of some the challenges faced by his country’s agriculture sector. “Dominica is a small island and we are impacted heavily by climate change.” He spoke of the country experiencing a number of droughts and heavy rainfall which affected the production in the sector, forcing them to come up with more viable ways to facilitate production. “We have introduced sheltered agriculture with the use of greenhouse technology and in-shed houses along with open field irrigation systems… recently we have introduced to our system hydroponics through the Chinese agricultural technician where we have some model farms on the island.”
He explained that the aim is to have a controlled environment for the production of vegetables, minimising the impact and climatic variables, while sustaining the demand on the island. “Recently we have completed the construction of a tissue culture lab in Dominica which has a capacity to produce 500,000 plants a year which will assist us in expanding on our local establishment because our aim is to provide clean planting material to farmers in selected crops.”
And Guyana’s Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha said that the conference bore much fruit. He told Stabroek News that all 34 countries that participated discussed many major issues plaguing Caribbean agricultural development such as sustainability, climate change and financing, adding, “We are coming up with very good ideas”. The conference ended yesterday.
