President Bharrat Jagdeo who is also CARICOM Chairman reiterated on Sunday in Jamaica  that investments in agriculture must reflect its priority to the region as the Caribbean seeks to ensure the security of its food supply.

Jagdeo was addressing the Denbigh Agricultural and Industrial Show in Clarendon, Jamaica where he is on a five-day working visit, the Government Information Agency (GINA) reported.

To this end, he  noted that allocations to the agricultural sector in national budgets need to be significant to reflect its emphasis.

“We will not realise the full potential of agriculture in this region until we change that perspective; until we situate agriculture in production and recognise that agriculture will be a very important part in our future,” the Head of State is quoted as saying.

Jagdeo urged all CARICOM countries to support the agricultural sector as they have done with other sectors of their economies.

“If we can give a whole range of incentives to tourism and the financial sector then surely we can do the same to the agricultural sector …so that farmers can get some support.”

“We need also to invest in infrastructure (and) research and development . . .  we must never see this as a short-term task to return to the same old policies that we have had before,” he said.

He warned, GINA said,  that failure to do this can set back advances that have been made in the sector over the years.

The Denbigh Agricultural and Industrial Show has been held for the last 57 years and integrates several key stakeholders within the Jamaican agricultural sector and related industries. It has been placed among the most prestigious exhibitions within the Caribbean and caters to an audience of over 80,000 patrons throughout the traditional three-day event.

Meanwhile, President Jagdeo on Monday chaired the first meeting of the leaders appointed to the regional task force that was established at the 30th CARICOM Heads of Government Conference in Guyana to look at the effects that the global financial and economic crisis is having on the region and to find suitable solutions, GINA reported.

The meeting was held at the Office of Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding in Kingston, Jamaica.

The Task Force also comprises Prime Ministers Patrick Manning of Trinidad & Tobago, Ralph Gonsalves of St. Vincent & the Grenadines, and David Thompson of Barbados.

Additional technical members of the Task Force include the CARICOM Secretary-General, President of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB),  Director-General of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS),  and the Director of the Caribbean Centre for Money and Finance (CCMF), GINA added.