CLARKE
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (CMC):
JAMAICA'S AGRICULTURE Minister Roger Clarke has praised the regional agricultural policy being pursued by Caribbean governments saying it will ensure that the agricultural sector is given priority in the future socio-economic development of the Caribbean.
Clarke, addressing a symposium in Puerto Rico, said the policies and programmes for the agricultural sector in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), as set out in the Jagdeo Initiative, would also ensure that the region's agriculture sector become a sustainable entity.
He told the symposium on Invasive Alien Species (IAS) here on Tuesday, as part of the 42nd annual general meeting of the Caribbean Food Crops Society (CFCS), that the Caribbean attaches a high level of importance to agriculture and that the CARICOM's agriculture policy had been enshrined in the revised treaty establishing CARICOM as well as the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).
"The mandates recognise, develop and establish the significant importance of agriculture in sustainable development in the Caribbean and provide the framework within which agriculture must be repositioned," said Clarke.
The Jagdeo Initiative is a practical instrument to put in motion the Regional Transfor-mation Programme on Agriculture or its successor, the Caribbean Community Agriculture Policy.
