In circumstances where the agricultural sector in Latin America and the Caribbean plays a vital role in producing food and ecosystem services not only for the region but for the entire planet, the World Bank wants policy-makers to take action to unleash what it says is the sector’s vast potential to drive sustainable and inclusive growth in the decades ahead.
The exhortation contained in a report from the Bank released last week comes against the backdrop of what is felt to be the considerable underperformance of the agriculture sector in the Caribbean where Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member countries, particularly, have not only failed to optimize their individual and collective agricultural potential but have placed a heavy burden on their vital foreign exchange earnings by running up an annual extra regional food import bill currently believed to be in excess of US$5 billion dollars.
The Bank is calling for an end to what in effect is a mismanagement of the economic resources of countries in the region and for a much closer focus on the gains to be secured from the sector as agriculture and food systems across Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) try to recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
