Guyana and 13 other Caribbean nations are set to benefit from an agriculture co-operation agreement between Mexico and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) that will train 150 technical personnel from the region in priority areas for agricultural development.
The agreement was signed by Secretary of Agriculture, Livestock Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (Sagarpa) of Mexico, Enrique Martinez y Martinez and Director General of the IICA Victor M Villalobos within the framework of the Third Mexico-Caribbean Community (Caricom) Summit held in Yucatan, Mexico in April, a statement from the IICA said.
The programme will be conducted in three phases, the first of which is training in Mexico. Participants will also be drawn from Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, The Bahamas, Belize, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, Suriname, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago.
The second phase involves the transfer of appropriate technology and capabilities acquired during the course, with supervised practicum in the respective countries through local projects, while the third phase will entail systemisation of the lessons learned and evaluation of the training programme, especially the results relating to productivity and the adaptation of Good Agricultural Practices to the conditions of each Caribbean country.
The Mexican Embassy in Guyana and the IICA said the ministry identified 13 officers to participate in the programmes in areas of family farming, protected agriculture, sheep production, rural tourism and plant pathology. Eight officers departed Guyana over the weekend while the remaining five will travel between month end and early August to participate in the programme, each of which will run for about two weeks.
