THE Inter American Institute for Co-operation on Agriculture (IICA) will be training Regional agricultural and land use officials on Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) and adaptation of family farming to climate change, in a four-day programme in Guyana starting from Monday.Local IICA representative Mr Wilmot Garnett disclosed that the specific objective is to strengthen the technical capacity of public and private institutions responsible for the promotion of integrated water management towards sustainable development of family farming and its better adaptation to climate change.

The venue will be the Boardroom of the Ministry of Agriculture.

The beneficiaries of the training will be representatives from agricultural, water management and land use agencies in Guyana, Suriname, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, Antigua and Barbuda, and St. Vincent.

Mr. Garnett; Mr Fred Flatts of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA); IICA specialists from Costa Rica Dr Muhammad Ibrahim and Ms. Karen Montiel; Dr Kevon Rhiney of the University of the West Indies (UWI) and Dr Javier Ramirez of Mexico will be the main resource persons/facilitators.

The training is expected to address three modules. The first one will focus on setting the context, definitions, and basic concepts; the second on climate risk management in family agriculture with emphasis on adaptation and water resources; and the third module on the utilisation of useful technologies to the management and conservation of water.

A field trip to the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC) as well as visits to farms where water management practices will be observed will take place on the third day of the programme and will be representative of the different concepts introduced and discussed during the class room sessions.

Participants will be given certificates for successful participation in the programme at the closing ceremony on Thursday.

IICA disclosed that during the celebration of the ministerial meeting and seventeenth regular session of the Inter-American Board of Agriculture (IABA) in 2013, the Ministers of Agriculture of the Americas encouraged the Agency to lead, coordinate and support a technical cooperation programme to promote integrated water management in agriculture.

IICA said this programme was one of the priority issues of technical cooperation in its 2014-2018 Medium Term Plan and for achieving its strategic objectives by 2020.

By Clifford Stanley