–in priority agricultural areas

THIRTEEN Guyanese are to receive training in Mexico in priority areas for local agricultural development.
The Guyanese officers are participating in programmes in the areas of Family Farming, Protected Agriculture, Sheep Production, Rural Tourism and Plant Pathology.

The first batch of eight participants departed last Saturday and Sunday while the remaining five will leave at the end of July and early August.
The training follows an agreement signed by the Secretary of Agriculture, Livestock Rural Development, Fisheries and Food of Mexico, (SAGARPA) and the Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) on April 29th last.

The signing by Enrique Martínez y Martínez of SAGARPA and Víctor M. Villalobos was done within the framework of the Third Mexico-Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Summit, held in Yucatan, Mexico last April, the local IICA office reported.

The Summit had agreed to the provision of training for 150 technical personnel in the field of agricultural development, in the CARICOM member states.

Apart from Guyana, participants are drawn from Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, the Bahamas, Belize, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, Suriname, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago.

Wilmot Garnett, IICA Representative in Guyana disclosed that the programme will be conducted in three phases, the first of which is training in Mexico.
The second phase involves the transfer of appropriate technology and capabilities acquired during the course, with supervised practicum in the respective countries through local projects.

The third phase will entail systematisation of the lessons learned and evaluation of the training programme, especially the results relating to productivity and the adaptation of Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) to the conditions of each Caribbean country, Mr Garnett said.

(By Clifford Stanley)