Caricom meets FAO

The Secretary-General of Caricom, Irwin LaRocque and Director General of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) José Graziano da Silva met in Santiago, Chile and  reviewed progress in FAO’s assistance to the community in agriculture, particularly the areas of food security, assistance with sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures, and food and plant health.

They also discussed the effect of climate change on agriculture and its impact on food security, and explored ways in which FAO can help to address this issue, a release from the Caricom Secretariat said.

The two heads were attending the Summits of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the European Union (EU) and CELAC.  Secretary-General LaRocque was accompanied by Assistant Secretary-General for Foreign and Community Relations,  Colin Granderson, while Director General da Silva was accompanied by Raúl Benítez, Assistant Director-General and FAO Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean, Augustin Zimmermann, Special Adviser at the FAO Headquarters and Alanjorge Bojanic of the FAO Office in Chile.

The Caricom Secretariat and the FAO sub-regional office in Barbados will continue to collaborate in these efforts, the release concluded.