It is by no means uncommon for slogans and undertakings linked to important landmark events in the Caribbean to count for little in terms of actualization of stated objectives. That said, this year’s Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA) will evoke, for the governments and peoples of the region, the acute nature of the challenges which agriculture faces. Truth be told, agriculture continues to severely test Caribbean governments in terms of their ability to keep their word on undertakings that count for much in the context of the development of the region.
Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA) will be staged during the period October 9-13 and if nothing else, the commemorative event will provide the region with a timely reminder, that with the food security of some CARICOM member countries currently hanging in a precarious balance, it is incumbent upon the region to ensure that CWA 2023 count for much more than ritual and rhetoric.
Arguably, the most prominent issue on the regional calendar over the past year has been a collective concern over the food security bona fides of the region, a circumstance that has caused governments to take a hard look at their food security bona fides.
In the instances of most countries in the region, what they have found has not been pleasing. Between 2022 and all of 2023, so far, the Caribbean has had to endure various pointed warnings regarding the weaknesses of its food security bona fides, warnings that have been most pointed in the majority of the smaller islands of the region, victims of an overwhelming dependence on foreign food imports. The current focus of attention is an undertaking termed the ‘25×2025’ initiative, an undertaking being spearheaded by Guyana and Barbados and which aims to reduce the Region’s US$5B food import bill by 25 per cent by 2025.
What is also likely to be on the agenda for CAW 2023, is the status of the much vaunted Regional Food Security Terminal, an initiative that seeks to create a kind of an emergency storehouse equipped to respond to food security emergencies in the region. There is an expectation that both the Regional Food Security Terminal and the 25×2025 undertaking will come under particular scrutiny during regional gatherings that are likely to be part of Caribbean Agriculture Week. CWA is also expected to pay a generous measure of attention to the pace of progress in the development of the region’s agro-processing sector, including the ironing out of arrangements for intra-regional market access for agro-produce manufactured in the various countries in the region.
The role of agro-processing in supporting the upgrading of the Caribbean’s food security bona fides has been particularly underlined in recent years through events held in Guyana, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, where buyers and sellers from across the region met to discuss and conclude arrangements for the creation of markets across the Caribbean. The primary objectives of CWA 2023 are the aggressive promotion of the Regional Food System Agenda, including initiatives designed to ensure the realization of the 25×2025 targets, as well as seeking to fashion and promote new opportunities in regional agriculture, including technological and logistical solutions to challenges in the sector.
