CARICOM Secretary-General, Dr. Carla Barnett, has announced that food and nutrition concerns will take centrestage at the upcoming regional conference in Barbados. Barnett said regional governments will pay special attention to the last report of the Ministerial Task Force on Food Production and Security in order to give food issues in the Caribbean the concern they deserve.
According to the secretary-general, CARICOM member-states have attained 57% of the target set to limit food import bill by 25% by 2025, and that more efforts need to be mustered to achieve the overall target. She stated that sustained agricultural practices and innovative farming technology will go a long way to guaranteeing regional food and nutrition security in the regional community.
The governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB), Timothy N.J. Antoine, also stated that the Caribbean has not been insulated from the crisis of food insurity around the world. He said that according to the CARICOM World Food Program report released last year, one in five persons in the Caribbean are hungry and 8 in 10 deaths are traceable to non-communicable diseases.
Antoine said the Caribbean faces food shortage and that proper nutrition is lacking, making the region one of the top regions in the world with severe food insecurity. He urged CARICOM leaders to devise strategies for improving agricultural yields and raising food security in the region. According to him, the overall economic health of a region is linked to its food and nutrition programmes.
Meanwhile, the Caribbean Food and Drink Market report for 2023-2025 has shown that food security cannot be achieved in the region without the diligent collaboration of stakeholders comprising of farmers, agriculture societies and credit unions, stock retailers, and economic experts who are able to analyze market trends for informed government decisions and interventions.
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