BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, CMC -Caribbean Group (CARICOM) agriculture ministers meet right here on Tuesday specializing in a variety of points together with the standing and tendencies in fisheries and aquaculture manufacturing, commerce, and employment; initiatives to fight unlawful, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, and a brand new grievance redress mechanism for the Belize-based Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM).
The assembly varieties a part of the actions for the nineteenth Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA 2025), which obtained underway right here on Monday. St. Kitts and Nevis Agriculture, Fisheries, and Marine Assets Minister Samal Duggins highlighted the central position of agriculture in regional growth and resilience.
“Agriculture is not only one other sector. It’s the very lifeblood of our individuals. It’s the assure that each household can entry wholesome and nutritious meals,” he stated in his function tackle, reflecting additionally on the CWA 2025 theme “Sowing Change, Harvesting Resilience: Remodeling our Caribbean Meals Techniques for 2025, saying that the “seeds we plant right here immediately, the insurance policies we form, the partnerships we construct, will decide the resilience and the prosperity that we will reap tomorrow”.
He urged regional leaders to confront long-standing challenges and elevate the agricultural agenda.
“Our area has not all the time given agriculture the precedence it deserves. Too usually, it has been seen as a final resort, slightly than recognised as a pillar of sovereignty and a pillar of development,” Duggins stated, outlining efforts being made domestically, together with the meals import discount programme, which prioritises native funding to extend the manufacturing of high-demand crops similar to bananas, plantains, coconuts, and pineapples..
“We’re scaling climate-smart practices, increasing agro-processing, and empowering our youth and ladies to guide on this very transformation,” he stated, acknowledging the significance of unified regional efforts and emphasising the worth of South-South cooperation, notably by way of strengthening relationships with African nations.
He stated the dual island Federation has been actively forging nearer ties with international locations like Nigeria and that such South-South collaboration permits shared studying in climate-smart agriculture, the creation of cross-continental worth chains, and the event of deeper commerce and innovation networks.
The agriculture ministers assembly, which will likely be chaired by Anguilla’s Minister of Financial Improvement, Business, Commerce, Lands, Planning, Water, and Pure Assets, Kyle Hodge, can even focus on a regional coaching and capability wants evaluation being undertaken by the CRFM with assist from GRÓ-Fisheries Coaching Programme (FTP), beneath the auspices of the United Nations Academic, Scientific and Cultural Group (UNESCO), in addition to south-south cooperation with China.
The ministers can even obtain updates and supply coverage steering on regional initiatives geared toward enhancing local weather resilience and selling blue financial development. These embody the International Affairs Canada-funded Sustainable Applied sciences for Adaptation and Resilience in Fisheries (STAR-Fish) Challenge; the GEF/CAF/FAO/CRFM BE-CLME+ Challenge: Selling Nationwide Blue Financial system Priorities by way of Marine Spatial Planning within the Caribbean Massive Marine Ecosystem Plus (BE-CLME+); and the New Zealand Bioeconomy Science Institute: Plant and Meals Analysis Group/CRFM Sargassum Merchandise for Local weather Resilience within the Caribbean Challenge.
In the meantime, the Organisation of Japanese Caribbean States (OECS) will launch its landmark Widespread Apiculture Coverage this week, coinciding with the ninth OECS Council of Ministers assembly on Agriculture.
The coverage, developed beneath the EU-funded BioSPACE Programme in collaboration with regional companions, seeks to guard bees as important pollinators whereas strengthening the apiculture sector by way of sustainable practices, standardized approaches, and research-driven methods.
“We’re going to have a technical paper and presentation introduced inside CWA, so that is one thing that will likely be very pertinent for individuals like beekeepers, individuals who wish to get into the apiculture area, and coverage makers,” stated Beekeeper on the Division of Agriculture right here, Monroe Tweed.
“What it’s mainly, it’s a doc about how we want to flesh out how we (standardise) beekeeping within the area, and never simply in St. Kitts, however it is a doc that’s been build up for a number of years, with baseline research funded by Small Grant Packages (SGPs)
“We’d additionally love to do an IPM, which is an Built-in Pest Administration paper, as a result of bees have their very own pests, particularly within the local weather that we’re in. It’s an agricultural enterprise now, so we should think about that nearly as good stewards of bees.”
As a part of the celebrations, the OECS-CARICOM Caribbean Honey Present can even be featured throughout CWA 2025, providing patrons the chance to style and buy honey and associated merchandise, together with soaps created from beeswax, honey cocktails, pastries, and extra.
On Wednesday, the CRFM will companion with the native Division of Marine Assets and the Nationwide Fisherfolk Group to convene the Caribbean Small-scale Fisheries & Aquaculture Discussion board.
