Outgoing Chairman of CARICOM, the Hon Roosevelt Skerrit, Prime Minister of Dominica, at the opening ceremony of the 46th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM, said that the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) remains on course to achieve the goals identified under the 25 by 2025 Initiative, Prime Minister of Dominica, the Hon. Roosevelt Skerrit said on Monday.
Food and nutrition security is a critical goal of the initiative which aims to reduce the Region’s high food import bill, in the vicinity of $6B, by 25 per cent by the year 2025. Specific objectives include the removal of barriers to intra-regional trade; improving logistics and transportation; greater cross-border investments in the agriculture sector; and the provision of alternate financing and insurance. In his remarks, the Prime Minister said that the Community took specific steps last year towards self-sufficiency through the continued implementation of the Community Agricultural Policy (CAP), fostering innovation and collaboration among farmers.
The progress included increased budgetary allocations to the agricultural sector in Member States; the introduction of new crops; improved cross-border investments and collaborations; development and implementation of new agriculture trade policies and guidelines; and the identification and agreement on possible insurance products to benefit farmers in the Region.
“It means that we remain on course to meet our 25 by 2025 Food Security Initiative targets, with the most critical one being to reduce our food import bill and advance food and nutrition security for the Community,” he said.
CARICOM Heads of Government will place emphasis on food systems and food and nutrition security during then business sessions of the Meeting which began on Monday morning at the Marriott Hotel in Georgetown. As the Head of Government with responsibility for agriculture, agricultural production and food security in the CARICOM Quasi Cabinet, President of Guyana and Chair of the Community, H.E. Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali is leading discussions on the initiative at the meeting.