— for CARICOM to achieve its ‘25 by 25’ goal, says VP Jagdeo
WITH an estimated US$7.5 billion in private sector investments needed for CARICOM to achieve its “25 by 25” goal, Vice-President, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo is urging member states to take a hands-on approach to achieve the regional target.
Vice-President, Dr. Jagdeo issued the call while delivering a presentation on “Addressing Key binding constraints to agriculture growth” on Friday, at the Agri-Investment Forum and Expo being held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC).
Dr Jagdeo stressed that strong commitment is needed from heads of government to ensure more attention and commitment is given to increasing fiscal support in the area of agriculture and addressing trade barriers in the region.
“When we leave here we have to leave here with firm agreements of addressing trade barriers that are there. We have to tackle this as a priority. This requires heavy lifting,” Dr. Jagdeo emphasised.
Several heads of CARICOM are currently in Guyana attending the Agri-Investment Forum and Expo and they have affirmed their support for “25 by 25” goal, which seeks to reduce the extra-regional food import bill by 25 per cent by 2025.
CARICOM member states have agreed that much unity, political will and heavy investments are needed to achieve the goal of reducing the region’s food import bill by 25 per cent by 2025. Dr. Jagdeo said more than just talk is needed, he said member states need to ramp up investments in their agriculture sectors.
“If you look at the budget dedicated to agriculture in many countries, they’re very small and dwindling,” Dr. Jagdeo noted while pointing out that the region may not be able to address all of the issues within three years given how far away it is from addressing many of the constraints impeding on the 25 by 25 goal.
He also called for respective nations to establish a “champion” that will drive the operationalisation of 25 by 25 goal at the political level.
“It needs intervention from the presidents or the Office of the Prime Ministers of [each individual nation] because they’re so many cross-cutting issues that need to be addressed, that would need heavy intervention on the part of the head of government,” Dr. Jagdeo said.
In addition, he said governments need to start working with their people on the ground to develop their agriculture sectors.
“I’ve seen President Ali go down on the ground, talking to the smallest farmers. You have to be that engaged if you want this to matter. You have to really understand what it takes and only then can you respond to the problems of people,” Dr. Jagdeo said.
Notwithstanding the huge investment needed, the Vice-President pointed out that there is some amount of increase in production that could take place even without the need for further investment, given that many existing producers are not operating at the full capacity.
Dr Jagdeo also noted that no sustainable agriculture strategy could be pursued or developed unless it is closely linked to a national water strategy and national climate strategy.
“They are all interlinked. Climate change is not just a threat to the way of life, a lot of the agriculture we do now we may not be able to pursue unless we have a national adaptation strategy,” said Dr. Jagdeo.
