Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves is among three regional Heads of Government who have signalled their intention to travel to Guyana in May 2022 to attend an Agriculture Investment Forum and Expo.
The regional event, launched in Georgetown on Friday, is in keeping with a CARICOM decision to reduce the region’s food import bill by 25 per cent by 2025 to promote and improve the productivity and resilience of the region’s agricultural food systems.
Speaking via a recorded message on Friday, Gonsalves said he hopes all of CARICOM will attend.
“More than ever, we have to build agriculture and feed ourselves in this region, and Irfaan Ali has a plan, and we need to interrogate that plan, and it also requires investments, not only from the States by also the private sector from the region and globally,” Dr Gonsalves said.
Meanwhile, Secretary-General of CARICOM Dr Carla Barnett believes the excitement of regional leaders for the Guyana-led initiative has been understated, emphasising that there was real support for Dr Ali’s proposal.
“There is no better time than now to do what is needed to withstand future crises as a region better, whether those crises be disasters or supply chain bottlenecks,” Dr Barnett said.
President Ali said ‘25 by 2025’ was no longer a dream or an objective but now a reality that must be accomplished.
He reminded us that agriculture was a founding economic base for several CARICOM states, and the region must return to it.
“We have divested ourselves from this [agriculture]. We have been forced out in some instances because of climate change and natural disasters, and then we have been lackadaisical in some instances,” Dr Ali said as he urged shared responsibility among regional countries for the failures over the years.
“The time is right; we must now embrace it.”
The Agriculture Investment Forum and Expo will take place in Georgetown, Guyana, from May 19 -21.
