art cwa 2010 agenda

8/8/2019 Art Cwa 2010 Agenda

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About the Theme

Agriculture, regardless of how one defines it, is

called upon to meet economic, environmental

and social goals. In preparing agriculture to

meet these goals, Caribbean governments

have organised and re-structured theirinstitutional governance systems and

operations to plan and manage the agricultural

development process. In so doing, planning

agriculture evolved into three-five year cycles of

policies, or strategies or work plans developed

and implemented by Ministries of Agriculture

with varying levels of stakeholder engagement.

There have been risks that have set-back

attainment of agricultures development goals,

mostly weather related (hurricanes), marketrelated (trade liberalisation, changing

consumer demands, etc), financial, institutional

and other risks that are known and occur at all

levels of the agriculture industry. Despite these

risks, agriculture is expected to contribute to

meeting the development goals. Target 2015

is five years away! By then, global poverty is

expected to be reduced by 50%! Global hunger

and malnutrition is also expected to be halved!

Other areas of progress include reducing

natural resource degradation and empoweringwomen.

To fast-track progress to 2015, good

agriculture policy is indispensible; there is no

substitute. The only issue is how the policy

process is conducted, from start to finish,

including, adequate budgetary allocations for

programmes, projects, research and disaster

risk management. The latter is absolutely

essential!

A 2004 United Nations Development Program

(UNDP) Report titled Reducing Disaster Risk-A

Challenge for Development acknowledged that

disasters put development at risk, with

disasters resulting from natural hazards

exacting a tremendous cost on development.

The risks to development are greater now than

ever before, and that is especially given the

high level of global integration. This has given

rise to an environment of uncertainty.Uncertainty, as distinct from risk, can be

described as unknown unknowns, events for

which we have no prior knowledge, or inkling;

events we just cannot predict. Amidst these

risks and uncertainty, agriculture must be

positioned to perform, survive and thrive for

the benefit of the regions wealth (economies)

and health (people and environmental

resources).

Hence issues of policy, the status of naturalresources, coping with hazards and their

disasters, extension services and innovation in

agri-business are all important and related

issues for agriculture to meet its 2015

development targets,


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ART AgendaDAY 1 Tuesday 19th October

Schedule Topic

9:00 -

9:15 am

Welcome and

Introduction

9:15 -

10:30 am

Panel 1:

Planning Agricultures Development:Issues, Process, Expectations Panellists:

-Mr. Gregg Rawlins/IICA-Mr. John King/Suriname-Michael Hailu, Director, CTA-Dr. Lindiwe Sabanda/Southern Africa

Despite weakness of policy structures and capacities, gooagriculture policy remains integral to placing agriculture oa firm footing to deal with old, new and emergingdevelopment challenges. However, there appears to be no

common understanding or philosophy of the subject ofsuch policy agriculture.

ART seeks to clarify the scope of agriculture in the 21stcentury, the signals that demand clear and urgent policyresponses at the national level and stakeholderparticipation in the policy process at all levels.

BREAK 10:30 11:00 am

11:00

12:30 pm

Panel 2:

Saving Agricultures Physical Resources

Panellists :

-Prof. Nazeer Ahmad-Mrs. Lystra Fletcher-Paul-

Mr. Erle Noronha-Dr. Susan Singh-Renton

With global focus on climate change, the plight of land,soils, water and agricultures other natural resources isbeing brought in focus. For decades, outdated land usepolicy/non-enforcement of zoning laws have led to seriousland and water degradation, marine pollution anddeforestation.

ART explores the situation with our soils, water andmarine resources against the backdrop of the need tosubstantially increase the regions food and nutritionsecurity.

LUNCH 12:30 2:00 pm

2:00 -3:30pm

Panel 3:

Coping with Hazards Recovering fromDisaster

Panellists

-Keith Amiel/Jamaica-Dhano Sookoo/Trinidad-Alain Thermil/Haiti-Dr. Guido Marcelle/Grenada

Natural hazards are a naturalpart of life on earth.Farming, in particular, given its dependence on naturalresources, is vulnerable to natural hazards and thedisasters that could arise when they occur. High rainfall,hurricanes, pests and diseases, are among the naturalhazards that pose high risks to farming. The largenumbers of small and resource constrained farmers often

do not have coping strategies and the absence of riskmitigation programmes compounds the problems. ARTexamines the issue of natural hazards, disasters andissues critical to fast-tracking agriculturesrecovery afterdisaster,

3:30

4:00 pm

Daily Round Up

END OF DAY 1

ART AgendaDAY 2 Wednesday 20th October

Schedule Topic

9:00 -

10:30 am

Panel 4:

Re-Branding Extension to Service Chains

Panellists:

- Felix Leslie/MoA-Dominica- Joe Pires/Caribbean Chemicals- David Dolly/UWI-Extension- Jos Fonseca/CTA

The frontline has come under much attack over the last15 years at least, in terms of the relevance andeffectiveness of Ministry of Agriculture services tofacilitate change and transformation in agriculture. Therehave been several often unanswered calls for privatesector to take over these services. To meet 2015development targets, extension will continue to be an


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ART Agendaimportant player. Some questions remain: what servicesare now required; who will provide them?

ART re-opens the extension debate in an attempt to getclarity on what are the issues and prospects for movingfrom tradition and re-branding Agriculture Extension.

BREAK 10:30 11:00 am

11:00

12:30 pm

Panel 5:

Innovating the Agri-Business (product,process, etc)

- Fredericka Deare/KAIRI- Steve Maximay/SBI- Marian Hart/BADMC- Allister Glean/TTABA

Agriculture producers, both in the fresh produce andprocessed products segments of the industry, have tocontend with economic imperatives of business - intense

and dynamic competition in agricultural markets, andsocial imperatives of development nutritious and safefoods. It often seems that there is no middle ground inplanning for and/or achieving these objectives. Howeverthey have one thing in common the need to continuouslyinnovate, something which has become more imperative itodays world of climate change,

ARTlooks at the responses to innovation in Caribbeanagriculture and the sustainability of these for business,food security and agricultural development in general.

LUNCH 12:30 2:00 pm

2:00

3:30 pm

Panel 6:

YiA - Preparing for 2015 agriculture A special panel done in collaboration with the Caribbean

Agriculture Forum for Youth3:30

4:00 pm

Closing IICA

CTA

END OF DAY 2

Round Table MannersART isnot a seminar, lecture series,workshop, consultation, or any of the

'official', 'formal', 'pre-set' meeting.

ART is: a platform for open dialogue and sharing

of expertise, information and ideas;

an entry point for media to get moreconnected with agriculture stakeholders;

a mechanism for interested, affected,movers and shakers in agriculture to

make connections, communicate &

network for development

art cwa 2010 agenda

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