Agriculture

In an effort to increase food production, improve nutrition, and achieve a

This is the conclusion of a two-part interview with former Agriculture Minister Dr Christopher Tufton. Part one was published on Sunday, July 10.

DR Christopher Tufton remembers taking heavy flak for the sugar industry divestment programme and the introduction of the Farmers' Markets during his tenure as agriculture and fisheries minister but remains convinced that his actions were justified.

In fact, he marks both projects as among the Government's major achievements that have respectively saved jobs and given consumers and farmers options.

A LEADING agricultural official is questioning why regional governments have refused to invest more funds in the agricultural sector when it has the best prospect for growth and can save valuable foreign exchange.

Guyana is one of two countries (Belize being the other) in the Caribbean to reduce hunger by 50 percent last year, says Lystra Fletcher-Paul, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) representative.
Fletcher-Paul indicated that Guyana knows what it wants in terms of agriculture in the Caribbean. Though the country has a high food production rate there is an issue of accessibility and this is the case in most hinterland communities where transportation is a challenge.

The Jamaican Government has placed an order for sugar from Guyana to avert shortages in that CARICOM country.
Quoting the Agriculture Ministry, the Jamaican Observer yesterday said that it has put in place measures to avert a shortage of sugar on the local market and has urged distributors not to hoard the product.
In a statement Wednesday, the Ministry assured the distributive trade that “adequate arrangements have been made to supply the market until local production comes on stream”.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) “The world’s pledged generosity to Haiti has little value until and unless it translates into improved conditions for the people of that country.”

This is the view of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Acting Secretary-General as she received, on Thursday, Letters of Credence from the Plenipotentiary Representative  of Italy to CARICOM, His Excellency Paolo Serpi, at the Headquarters of the CARICOM Secretariat.

​I wish as Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) as I make these remarks to join the preceding speakers in expressing great pleasure in addressing this formal opening ceremony of the 9th Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA).

​Since 2005, the world has experienced dramatic increases in the prices of many staple foods. Indeed, in the first three months of 2008, international food prices of all major food commodities reached their highest level in nearly 30 y.

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This workshop takes place at an important moment in history. With last week’s MDG Summit at the United Nations in New York evaluating the progress made mid-way to reach the targets set in 2005, we find ourselves in a World where close to one billion men, women and children remain undernourished. This is unacceptable.

​ Good evening, it is a pleasure to be here in Antigua and Barbuda and an even greater pleasure to deliver brief remarks at this opening ceremony of the Caribbean Regional Symposium on Agriculture Insurance.