Call to support regional farmers

ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Agriculture Minister Hilson Baptiste is calling on decision makers to provide the support to farmers so as to guarantee food and nutrition security in the Caribbean.Addressing the opening of the Caribbean Regional Symposium on Disaster Risk Management here, Baptiste said that with the region’s food import bill exceeding US$4 billion, the time has come to create the environment for greater investments in the sector.“Let us be focused in ensuring that the agriculture sector stands out in the region . . . it is more important now that we take serious steps to give farmers the protection that they need,” he said, adding that the sector was too often viewed as a “non entity” with minimal budgetary allocations when compared with other sectors such as tourism. “We have got to demonstrate that this is the No.1 industry, and be proud to work in it and for it,” he told delegates to the three-day symposium.The event is being organised by the Guyana-based Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, the World Bank, the Caribbean Development Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organisation, the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency and the Australian government.The symposium is seeking to devise measures towards the creation of a sufficiently coordinated framework for disaster risk management at the national and regional levels. (CMC)