Being held under the theme “Sowing Change, Harvesting Resilience: Transforming Our Caribbean Food Systems for 2025 and Beyond,” CWA 2025 will be a vital platform for sowing the seeds of change. It will promote the exchange of innovations in climate-smart agriculture, the sharing of lessons learned, and the forging of purposeful partnerships across the Region.
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is making significant strides in its pursuit of regional food security, with notable achievements in increased agricultural production, deeper intra-regional cooperation, and improved sector financing.
The Government of Guyana and the CARICOM Development Fund (CDF) yesterday signed a US$18 million financing agreement to kickstart the Agricultural and Infrastructural Development Programme (AIDP), which will see over 4,300 farmers across the ten regions of Guyana benefitting, with forty per cent of the beneficiaries being women and youth. The programme will allow for a further boost to Guyana’s agriculture sector in the form of support for compliance with food safety, sanitary and phytosanitary standards in the sector.
The upcoming Forty-Ninth Meeting of the CARICOM Heads of Government will place emphasis on improving regional security, enhancing food and nutrition security and combatting climate change, CARICOM Secretary-General, Dr. Carla Barnett, said.
The Meeting convenes 6-8 July, in Montego Bay, Jamaica, with Dr. the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, as the Chair. Prime Minister Holness assumes the six-month rotating Chairmanship of the Community on 1 July 2025.
Ambassador David Prendergast, Director, Sectoral Programmes at the CARICOM Secretariat, has highlighted the positive results of the Caribbean Community’s (CARICOM) 25 x 2025+5 Initiative.
He identified the key advancements in the approval and implementation of the Trade Policy for Animal and Animal Products (TPAAP), Regional Agricultural Health and Food Safety Policy, Sanitary and Phyto Sanitary (SPS) Guidelines for Trade in 19 special agricultural commodities, and the Alternate SPS Dispute Settlement Mechanism.
As the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) continues the quest to achieve its food and nutrition security goals, significant investment, employment and agro-processing opportunities in the poultry industry, have been identified.
Regional statisticians and agriculture stakeholders are participating in a workshop in Trinidad and Tobago aimed at building capacity to measure and monitor food security and nutrition (FSN).
"The Caribbean Real-Time Food Security Monitoring Dashboard is more than just a tool; it is a symbol of resilience and determination to foster a food-secure future for the Community. While the platform monitors food security, we remain committed to the broader goal of achieving food and nutrition security for the Region.
The project aligns with Barbados’ wider goals under the CARICOM 25 by 2025 (now 25 X 2030) agenda to reduce food imports and improve youth engagement in agriculture.
Uncertainties in the global trade arena and impacts from natural disasters in the Region are among the factors that have necessitated an extension to the regional food security initiative.