International Conference on Roots and Tubers

The Central Tuber Crops Research Institute in Indian held a four-day international conference, which began on July 9. The event was organised with the assistance of the Indian Society for Root Crops (ISRC). The main theme of the conference was "Tropical Roots and Tubers for Sustainable Livelihood under Changing Agro-cimate". 

The objective of the conference was to discuss the role of tropical tuber crops for food and livelihood security of millions of people of tropical world under changing agro-climate. 

Agriculture representatives  from India, USA, Colombia, Pery, China, Switzerland, Germany, Nigeria, and Thailand, just to name a few, were in attendance

To read more: International Conference on Roots and Tubers

Women on the Land: Creating Conscious Community

Documentary presents women’s role in agriculture; Local women contribute with music, paintings:

Many women have played key roles in agriculture through the years, working by themselves or with family members to produce enough food to feed themselves, with maybe enough left over to bring to market and make some money. 

A documentary film titled Women on the Land: Creating Conscious Community, will be featured in two upcoming performances at TSJC. The film will be shown on Saturday, Sept. 8, from 6-8 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 9, from 2-4 p.m. at the Massari Theater on the TSJC campus. Admission is $5, with children 12 and under getting in free.

Local artist Jaquie Gipson, who did the soundtrack for the film, will perform live during the screening. Original paintings by artist Karen Howl, based on scenes from the film, will be available for viewing. Amanda Gray, who is featured in the film, will speak about her experiences as a skilled farmer and goatherd.

Adapted from The Trinidad Times. To read more on  Women’s role in agriculture

Identify Emerging Issues for Youths in Agriculture in Trinidad and Tobago.

The Office of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) in Trinidad and Tobago in partnership with the Agribusiness Society of the University of the West Indies (ABS) hosted an Agri-Youth Symposium entitled, "To Identify Emerging Issues for Youths in Agriculture in Trinidad and Tobago".

The Agribusiness Society (ABS) is a student organization, whose members consist of undergraduate and postgraduate students of the Faculty of Food and Agriculture within the University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine campus, Trinidad. It's mandate is "to create conditions conducive to the development of agri-preneurs by empowering students through practical and theoretical learning, professional growth, networking service, innovation and entrepreneurship".

ABS focus is to "sensitize fellow students and the public to the scale of opportunities available for developing agriculture as a career choice through agribusiness and other related fields".


To read more: Identify Emerging Issues for Youths in Agriculture in Trinidad and Tobago.

Plans underway for Caribbean agriculture week in October

The Caribbean Community (Caricom) made public their arrangements for moving forward with the Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA) event. 

The theme of the CWA event is ‘Linking the Caribbean for Regional Food and Nutrition Security and Rural Development.’ The CWA event will be held in Guyana (hosted by the local Government) from October 4 - 12, 2013 featuring fisheries and forestry. 

The objective of the event is to "enable the key decision-makers in the public and private sectors to better acknowledge the importance of agriculture and rural life to the economic, social and environmental stability of the region [and] [i]t is also geared to provide major stakeholders in agriculture and related sectors with an opportunity to dialogue and forge a common vision for the repositioning of agriculture and the enhancement of rural life."

Activities will begin on October 4, 2013 with a formal opening on October 9, 2013. 

To read more on CWA's upcoming activities, please click the link provided: 
Plans underway for Caribbean agriculture week in October

Agriculture in Trinidad and Tobago: How Do We Move Forward?

From Farming to Agribusiness:

Dr. Sharon Hutchinson, Lecturer at the Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, Faculty of Food and Agriculture, UWI, St Augustine Campus, Trinidad states the following:

By the 1960s, the plantation economy of Trinidad and Tobago looked like so many others in the Caribbean, typified by the presence of several large farms owned by the social upper class. The agricultural sector grew largely due to the export of raw agricultural products to the UK and other European countries. 

In 1965, approximately 22 per cent of the labour force was employed in the agricultural sector (Trinidad and Tobago. CSO 1975, 2). By 1977, the key agricultural exports were sugar (139,506 tonnes), molasses (30,768 tonnes), raw cocoa (3,168 tonnes), raw coffee (1,608 tonnes) and citrus (527 tonnes) (Trinidad and Tobago. CSO 1987, 118). The sector was successful mainly because there were well established marketing arrangements and world agricultural product prices were relatively high.

Adapted from First Magazine.
To read more on Agriculture in Trinidad and Tobago: How Do We Move Forward?

Regional Strategic Planning and ICT conferences for Fisheries

BELIZE CITY, BELIZE; FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 2013 - The Caribbean island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, home to the Eastern Caribbean Office of the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM), will next week host Chief Fisheries Officers, Directors of Fisheries or Senior Fisheries Officers, and Technical ICT Officers responsible for fisheries management, data management and communication from Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.

The regional professionals will be meeting for the ACP Fish II/CRFM regional technical consultation dubbed Strengthening the Capacity of CRFM and its Member States for Information and Knowledge Sharing on Sustainable Management of Fisheries in the Caribbean Region, slated for January 28 and 29 at the Sunset Shore Beach Hotel in Kingstown...

To read more on Regional Strategic Planning and ICT conferences for Fisheries 

Adapted from Anguilla News

T&T hosts talks on regional agriculture

Today is the second and final day of a meeting of one of the technical management advisory committees (TMAC) set up by Caricom to look at co-ordination of agricultural research and development in the region. This TMAC was set up to define ways to address one of the ten key binding constraints, as identified in the Jagdeo Initiative, namely “Inadequate Research and Development.” It is led by the Ministry of Agriculture, St Lucia and convened by the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Cardi).

Hubert Emmanuel, permanent secretary at St Lucia’s Ministry of Agriculture, is chairing the sessions at the Hyatt Regency, Port-of-Spain. The Jagdeo Initiative is a strategy for removing constraints to the development of agriculture in the Caribbean. It builds upon past regional efforts to develop a common agricultural policy (CAP) and identifies ten key binding constraints faced by the sector, with resulting necessary actions.

The anticipated outcome of this meeting is agreement on the way forward for a regional strategy for research and development; a strategy for linkages with Latin America; and identification of essentials to address climate change. 

Officials at this meeting include representatives of Caricom, the Ministry of Food Production, the University of the West Indies, the University of Guyana, the University of T&T, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and the Inter-American Institute for Co-operation on Agriculture (IICA).

Adapted from the Guardian Media Limited (Guardian Newspaper).