CARICOM achieves 50 per cent of food import bill cuts
Caribbean Community (CARICOM) governments must work hand-in-hand in order to cut the region’s food import bill by 25 per cent by 2025 – a target which one regional leader said on Tuesday was halfway complete.
The need for cooperation was a common sentiment expressed by officials during Tuesday’s opening ceremony of Caribbean Week of Agriculture 2023 in The Bahamas.
This year, the theme of the 17th edition of the event is Accelerating Vision 25 by 2025 and host Prime Minister Philip Davis insisted that 25 by 2025 initiative is more than a slogan.
He said it is a shared vision “that recognises the urgency and potential of our future”.
Stating that “the need for more resilient agri-food systems looms large”, the Bahamian leader said that despite the ongoing challenges in the agriculture sector, he was hopeful about the region’s agricultural prospects.
“We are all well on our way to achieving the goal of reducing regional food imports by 25 per cent by 2025. In fact, collectively, we have achieved 50 per cent of this ambitious target.This represents a great stride forward when it comes to feeding ourselves and creating a sustainable agriculture industry.
“The Caribbean is poised to see an agricultural boom even in historically difficult environments. We are seeing innovations that allow for sustainable farming practices – sustainable from a food production perspective as well as a business model perspective. While this progress gives us hope, it will take more than just hope to fulfil our agricultural potential. It requires united action, innovation, an unwavering commitment to feeding ourselves as a regional policy priority,” he said.
Executive director of the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) Ansari Hosein, during his remarks, said the region’s food systems must be transformed with a sense of urgency because the food import bill was still high, reaching US$6 billion annually, and food prices have been on the rise since the start of this year, increasing by as much as 66.7 per cent.
He said this had significantly impacted the affordability of food among citizens, especially low-income earners.
Hosein also pointed out that 52 per cent of the English-speaking Caribbean was moderately to severely food insecure, adding that the lingering impacts of the challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia/Ukraine conflict along with vulnerability to global hazards have negatively impacted the agriculture sector’s contribution to food and nutrition security, wealth and employment.
“It is really unacceptable that this region remains one of the most food dependent in the world with also a high prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The burden of these NCDs is not only inextricably linked to the food we eat but has also been responsible for hindering our progress towards achieving sustainable development.
“This is why we need to support the advancement of the 25 by 2025 agenda, to produce our own wholesome food, and this agenda can only be successful if we adopt a whole of community approach; we need to remove this notion of insularity. Yes, of course, there is some national interest but we must keep our eye and focus on the macro-regional interest,” he said.
Hosein added that the success of the initiative also depended on the level of investment towards research and development and urged CARICOM governments as well as the private sector to take note of this.
He said: “Continuous research and development is a necessity to increase production and productivity. It is not something to be seen as by the way, and this is not the time to be withholding money for research and development. As a matter of fact, this is the time to be increasing it . . . .”
In spite of the challenging environment, Hosein said CARDI was “committed to providing the science-based solutions needed to transform and reposition agriculture in the region”.
“In this regard, we have aligned our research programmes and resource mobilisation initiatives to contribute to achieving this vision 25 by 2025. We continue to address production gaps and develop the value chains of the key priority commodities identified by the ministerial task force for import replacement . . . ,” he added.
(SZB)
