Slow progress has been made in overcoming constraints to regional agriculture, Adviser to the Regional Transformation Programme for Agriculture in the Caribbean Community (Caricom) Secretariat, Sam Lawrence recently said.
In an interview with Stabroek News on the Jagdeo Initiative, he spoke on the nine constraints that were identified and gave a broad overview of what has happened since the announcement of the Initiative in 2005. Countries and agencies had been assigned to lead the process of developing and implementing interventions to remove or reduce these. Before any work could be done, however, there was one that impacted on every other constraint and this was the lack of finances to carry out the work.
“One of the issues that affected the early harvest of the Jagdeo Initiative was how we managed the process and we were trying to find a mechanism that will manage the process so that it can become effective and what we have done with the prompting of President Jagdeo and with the agreement of the Ministers, each of the constraint is assigned to a minister from each country”, Lawrence also noted. In this light, last year, Technical Management Advisory Committees (TMAC), to expedite the removal of the constraints were set up. While some amount of work has been done in addressing the constraints, others are lagging. Below are the constraints and a broad overview of what has been accomplished so far.
1. Limited Finances and Inadequate levels of new Investments.
It was decided that there was a need to set up a special fund, the Agricultural Modernisation Fund, to see how resources could be raised for the work to be done. However, the Regional Development Fund (RDF) –now established, was given precedence and the design work to put an agricultural “window” into the RDF has started. Work is slated to be done by October, Lawrence said.
In addition, it was decided that there was a need to go to donors and in June 2007 an Agriculture Donors Conference was held in Trinidad and 15 donors were identified. At the Conference four donors inclusive of the Italian and Spanish Government, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the European Union put some money amounting to US$11.6M on the table.
A follow-up action plan was developed to work with the people who said that they were interested in projects and also the donors. There were 53 national projects and about 15 regional projects that amounted to US$439M. Lawrence said that in the process of working with the donors, they were able to get some additional funds in addition to the initial US$11.6M. He stated that the FAO had given another US$264,000 for a project in Dominica, the Spanish government made some funds available to work on a food security project in the Rupununi and that government also provided some funds for a project to alleviate poverty in fishing communities, among others. A Centre of Excellence is also being constructed in Jamaica to develop expertise in agriculture.
In addition, the Secretariat still in contact with the other 15 interested donors such as the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation is looking at three projects involving agricultural clusters, a marketing system for the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States and another involving youth in agriculture.
Meantime, the Agriculture Investment Forum was held in Georgetown in June last year for mobilizing resources for the private sector. 25 projects were submitted from the region with a request for over US$50M. Of those, 18 are still being actively pursued with six having successfully negotiated and received some resources for start-up of their projects. Various aspects of the other 12 projects are being examined and this is taking time, Lawrence said. “So again people will say how it take so long but if you ever go to a bank, to finance an agricultural project, you will find that it takes you and inordinate(ly) long time because first of all the people in the banking system is not quite au fait with the agricultural thing and they are all averse to the risk that is involved in agriculture and therefore they take a longest while to carry out their analyses and all that and make sure that everything is all right and what you are saying is going to work”, he stated.
The Caricom Agriculture Adviser noted that they are still looking at other projects and pointed out that a food needs study is being done. He said that they are also carrying out an analysis to see how the banking community has been reacting to the agricultural sector since the advent of the Jagdeo Initiative. This has not yet been completed but the indication is that there seems to be in absolute terms, if not in relative terms, some increase in the interest of bankers in putting in some funds in the agricultural sector, Lawrence disclosed.
2. Deficient and Uncoordinated Risk Management.
This is very critical, Lawrence said. He referred to the Caribbean Catastrophic Risk Insurance facility, which, he pointed out, came about at around the same time as the Jagdeo Initiative. The Insurance facility came on stream mainly for major catastrophe and risk related to other things and not necessarily agriculture. The idea came on stream at just about the time the Jagdeo Initiative was being contemplated and they decided to “piggy-back” on it, Lawrence said. He pointed out that Jamaica had insisted that they want the agricultural crops to be a part of the Facility and a study has been done to see how agriculture can be included. Guyana has also insisted that they want flood damage to be included and the study is now ongoing to look on climate change and its effects.
3. Fragmented and unorganized private sector.
The Caribbean Agro Business Association (CABA) is the lead agency on this constraint and St. Vincent and the Grenadines has responsibility for this. They are working on a number of issues including farmers, suppliers and markets, Lawrence said. “We are trying to get all the people together along the food chain…so that all the people are involved, are working together rather than having them working against each other. Sometimes you get the feel that the people who are marketing and exporting are working against the farmer, we want them to get to the point where they are working together”, he commented. The Caricom official stated that “the whole question of organization of the private sector is being done” and pointed out that a consultation was held last month with private-public sector “to see how we can bring that food chain into focus and make sure that it functions”.
4. Inadequate Research and Development.
“We having serious problem in that area…we are not doing very well in that area”, Lawrence acknowledged. This is an area that needs to be worked on and “I know there are serious considerations being done to see how they can work on that, so that we can improve our whole area”. The question of how the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) is going to be playing a role in coordinating the research at the various national research institutions, at the university and the various training institution is being examined. A bio-technology framework on policy for the region is also being done, he said.
5. Outdated and Inefficient Agriculture Health and Food Safety Systems.
The ultimate objective of this is to manage the region’s agricultural health and food safety systems system to make inter-regional trade in agricultural products become effective. The only way this can be measured is when there is a greater level of freedom of movement of agricultural products within the region, Lawrence said. “How we get there is still a problem and we are still working on it”, he declared. The idea, he pointed out, was first of all, each member state should have a national agricultural health and food safety system that is effective and then it should be coordinated at the regional level. “At this point in time, I think the member states are very slow in responding to getting their thing up but we are hoping that with consistent work and consistent urging we are going to get that done”, he added.
6. Inefficient land and water distribution and management systems.
This is also a very crucial problem that occurs throughout the region, Lawrence said. He stated that they have determined that the process of making land available for agriculture is too long. He observed that if a person had an agricultural project and it takes up to or above a year to get the land approval, then the project is going to be far down the road, because the land needs to be prepared, infrastructure developed, among other things and it could take up to three years while before the first crop is harvested, it would be another two years. “So we need to cut short those situations that have to do with land”. Also critical in the agricultural production process is water, Lawrence said, and this is being worked upon.
7. Inadequate transportation system.
A consultancy on the need for transportation was completed a year ago, and it showed that there was not a transportation shortage. The problem was a shortage of products to move. “If you start to produce and create the facilitation for trade then means and ways will be found to move the product. So it’s a chicken and egg situation and we are working on that”, Lawrence said.
Last week, he noted the Transportation TMAC was meeting in St. Vincent with stakeholders in the transportation business including shipping and airlines. Lawrence said that they were to come up with some proposals which they hoped to complete by the meeting’s end so that it can be included into the submission to the Heads of Government. He related that one company said that it can become more competitive if there is a reduction in the wharfage and government fees paid for agricultural products. He noted that agricultural products are sensitive and there are many issues relating to this and the operators would like to see the rates for the products be a little less than what they are at the moment. Other areas of transportation are actively being pursued, he added.
8. Weak and Inadequate information and intelligence systems, weak markets and lack of linkages.
“The whole question of weak and inadequate information and intelligent systems, weak market and lack of linkages in the market is still an issue that we are working on and the TMAC in Jamaica which is being led by the Jamaican Minister of Agriculture is continuing to do some work in that area and they are using (the) National Agricultural Development Marketing thing (NAVDELCO) in Trinidad as a base to assist in that area and therefore some work is being done there”, Lawrence said.
9. Lack of skilled human resources.
An assessment of the skills requirement within the agricultural sector is being done and work is about to start on the design of the type of training programme that will be put in place to assist the region to meet the demand for skills. This TMAC is being chaired by the Minister of Agriculture from Dominica and the University of the West Indies is the lead agency and there are some other institutions involved, Lawrence disclosed.
