Caribbean leaders to focus on “planting more” to reduce food import bills

Mar 01, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – Among the key objectives of the upcoming two-day CARICOM Heads of Government meeting will be the Region’s food import bill. According to the CARICOM Secretary General, Dr. Carla Barnett, “planting more” is one of the most effective ways to achieve this goal.

CARICOM Secretary General, Dr. Carla Barnett.

Her remarks were forthcoming during a virtual press conference on Monday during which she observed that the government of Guyana, in particular, His Excellency, President Dr. Irfaan Ali, is leading the charge in that area.
“There is some interesting and important undertaking that he have made in terms of investing in things like protected agriculture, targeting the particular food items that we import on a regular basis and making investments in producing more,” Dr. Barnett added. To this end, she noted that those are the things, which the CARICOM members are expecting him to report on during the Heads of Government meeting.
President Ali has been emphasising the importance of CARICOM Member States making broad commitments to achieve the target of reducing food imports by 25 percent by 2025.
In fact, President Ali has said, “It is either we are serious about this or we are not serious about this—we have to decide. This is not an individual country trying to achieve something. This is us as a collective. This is about us being successful together… We cannot advance this if the commitment and full participation are not there.”
The President had noted too that the intention is to be able to lead an effort to mobilise technical help and financial resources and to work with the Member States in achieving the target.
It should be noted that Guyana currently holds the lead responsibility for agriculture, agricultural diversification, and food security in CARICOM and is spearheading the regional body’s quest to reduce its US$5 billion food import bill.
Meanwhile, at Monday’s press conference too, the Secretary General revealed that at the upcoming Heads of Government meeting, “We’ll be specifically talking about agriculture, and agriculture development, food security, and nutrition security.”
She detailed too that on the agenda for the meeting, “the heads will be discussing tomorrow (Tuesday) and on Wednesday…the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; we are now moving towards focusing on economic recovery. We are going to be talking as well about the CARICOM single market and triggering more robust implementation.”
In fact, Dr. Barnett added that there is significant impetus for the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME) due to the impact of COVID-19. According to her, she is looking forward to the conversation among the regional heads and the definitive conclusions that will come out of such discussions.
Also on the agenda will be climate change and preparations for COP27 and outcomes from COP26, as well as holding discussions with Haiti’s Head-of-State in order to resolve some of that country’s issues. It was noted too that there will be preparations for the summit with the Central American Integration System (SICA), which will be held on Thursday, immediately after the meeting with the CARICOM Heads of States.
“So there is a lot on the table for discussions, and we are looking forward to having really energetic and productive discussions at this meeting,” the Secretary General said before opening the floor for questions from the media.