CARICOM PRIVATE SECTOR ORGANIZATION

Dr. Patrick Antoine,

CEO and Technical Director

CARICOM Private Sector Organization (CPSO)

The CARICOM Private Sector Organization (CPSO), is pleased to continue its support for the Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA), this year themed “Climate Smart Agriculture for a Sustainable Future”.

This year, the observance of CWA comes in the wake of the devastation wrought by changing weather patterns resulting in extreme events such as droughts, hot spells, heavy rainfall and devastating floods. Global warming and climate change continue to wreak economic, social and environmental havoc on the islands of the Caribbean, further underscoring the critical need for immediate, collective and concrete action to ensure the long-term sustainability of our regional agrifoods sector, in the face of increasingly intense climate-linked disasters.  The theme for this year’s CWA is therefore quite timely, as Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) is, without a doubt, an important integrative approach, that has been proven to help ensure that agrifood systems are resilient and sustainable.

Climate Smart Agriculture is not new to the Caribbean Community. It has been promoted across the Region for well over a decade, and we have seen the successes realized from data collection (particularly weather related), GPS farm mapping, the introduction of automated irrigation systems, and crop simulation modelling to inform better planning and decision making. Wherever it has been applied, CSA has served to revolutionize agrifood systems, improve connectivity, reduce inefficiencies and improve productivity. We note, however, that recent weather events have reinforced the urgent need for the consistent utilization of strategies like these in the agrifood sector to inform productivity increases and to ensure that we are better positioned, as a Region, to plan for, adapt to and withstand the adverse effects of climate change. We, therefore, support the calls for collaborative approaches towards CSA application across the Community.

We have seen the positive results of cohesion and partnerships in the Community. This year’s hurricane season, for example, got off to a historically early and unusual start, in the Southwestern segment of the Region. Consequently, the destructive passage of Hurricane Beryl in early July, triggered an immediate and collective relief response mechanism that worked well because of the seamless collaboration by all parties -the governments of Member States, national and regional policy makers, civic society, the private sector, and other players in the global community. When we rise to the occasion and work together in this manner, we demonstrate the strength of synergy. In the same vein, we at the CPSO, believe that a concrete, collective, cohesive, and multifaceted approach toward implementing new and emerging agricultural techniques and harmonizing effective practices, that have been tried and tested, can only redound to the benefit of all.

We recognize the role that the private sector must play. Whether it is through developing value chains, providing transportation and logistics support, financing climate-smart initiatives, and/or through the implementation of several other strategies from private sector investments to capitalizing on opportunities for intra-regional trade, the CPSO is ready to answer the call.

The agrifood system, in every instance of climate related disaster has stood as one of the most negatively impacted sectors with direct and indirect consequences for ‘agri’ entrepreneurs (especially farmers), timely production, food distribution, food security, and the establishment of resilient communities and societies. We are confident however, that a comprehensive strategy that identifies definitive climate-smart actions and initiatives, supported by appropriate policy measures at the national, regional, and global levels, will return dividends, not only for the agrifoods sector, but also to the social well-being and economic health of the Community as a whole. The CPSO therefore looks forward to the upcoming CWA as an significant occasion to identify policies, programmes, and potential investments, for promoting the development of climate resilient and climate smart opportunities, for operators in the agrifoods sector.