CARICOM told to back agriculture

CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY (CARICOM) governments have been urged to demonstrate that they are serious about agriculture and reaffirm its importance to the socio-economic development of the region.

The appeal came Monday in an address to a two-day forum here on Agribusiness Opportunities in CARICOM by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture Dr Jimmy Fletcher, who also called for the many constraints retarding agricultural development to be addressed.

One such constraint Dr Fletcher suggested was the perception of Caribbean people that the agriculture sector was dying.

"When one observes the attention being paid to agriculture and listens to various pronouncements on its importance to the region, one could be excused for thinking that for CARICOM states the sector was dying," he said.

However he noted the reality was that the sector continues to be the main source of employment and was often the major earner of foreign exchange in Caribbean economies.

"Therefore our first goal is to erase that negative perception that colours the reaction of Caribbean people to agriculture enterprises and be extension to the products of a Caribbean agro-industry," he added.

Fletcher said that this had to be done foremost at the level of governments whose officials needed to speak more positively and consistently on the importance of domestic agriculture.

"Our policies have to demonstrate that we are serious about promoting Caribbean agriculture and a more respectable share of national financial resources has to be allocated to agriculture development," he added.

Dr Fletcher identified some of the more pressing constraints to agribusiness development as being the inability of farmers to make the switch to commodities other than bananas for which a guaranteed market existed.

He said that in the case of St. Lucia an attempt was made to solve the problem through the creation of a marketing unit, but this was unable to grapple with problems of inconsistent application of grades and standards by farmers and poor organisation of farmer and producer groups.

There were also outstanding problems of inaccurate information on national production and insufficient institutional capacity to deal with the myriad regional and international trade policy instruments that dictate the manner in which agricultural trade is conducted.

"It is clear that even when we are able to identify business opportunities for local agribusiness persons, they lack the organisational structure and capacity to make optimal and sustained use of these opportunities," he noted.

He said that two other key constraints were the availability of finance or credit facilities to support increased investment in the sector and the inadequate transportation links.

The forum of agribusiness is being attended by a number of Caribbean inventors and financiers who are seeking to develop agribusiness opportunities in the region. It is hosted by the CARICOM Secretariat in collaboration with USAID and the Commonwealth Science Council.

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