Caricom remains focused on its agriculture agenda, Assistant Secretary-General for Trade and Economic Integration Irwin LaRocque said at an Agriculture Round Table (ART) last week in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

According to a press release, LaRocque said agriculture was enshrined in the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas establishing the Caricom Single Market and Economy. It included among other things, the “fundamental transformation of the region’s agriculture sector to a market oriented internationally competitive and environmentally sound production of agriculture products, im-proved income and employment opportunities and nutrition security, poverty alleviation.”

LaRocque said too the issue of food security had been on the region’s agenda for some time and that work had heightened in the light of the rise in food prices globally. He told the meeting, which included entrepreneurs, agriculture policymakers, representatives from NGOs, farmers’ groups and the media that the region recognised that there were constraints to development in the agriculture sector.

LaRocque also said that work was continuing in addressing these constraints. “Some work has been done to identify the key binding constraints and we are seeking  to remove those constraints so that agriculture can become more competitive and also that we meet our food and nutrition requirements,” he said.

In response to some audience members’ queries about whether individual countries were committed to tackling the challenges in the sector LaRocque agreed that there were some real challenges for member states in this process. However, he said, evidence showed that there needed to be improvement in capacity for the sector, adding that the human resource constraints were real.

According to the release, the ART was among the activities hailed as part of Caribbean Week of Agriculture.

Issues such as the visibility of the Caribbean and Caribbean agriculture issues on international development agendas: budget, financing mechanisms and modes of motivating farming communities to increase outputs were addressed. Along with Caricom other partners of the ART are the IICA, the Caribbean Agricultural Policy Network, ACP-EU Technical Centre for Agri-culture and Regional Coop-eration and CARDI.