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 their
institutional 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 agriculture’s development goals,
mostly weather related (hurricanes), market
related (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 empowering
women.
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 region’s wealth (economies)
and health (people and environmental
resources).
Hence issues of policy, the status of natural
resources, 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,
 ART Agenda
DAY 1 – Tuesday 19th October
Schedule Topic
9:00 - Welcome and
9:15 am Introduction
9:15 - Panel 1: Despite weakness of policy structures and capacities, good
10:30 am Planning Agriculture’s Development: agriculture policy remains integral to placing agriculture on
Issues, Process, Expectations Panellists: a firm footing to deal with old, new and emerging
- Mr. Gregg Rawlins/IICA development challenges. However, there appears to be no
- Mr. John King/Suriname common understanding or philosophy of the subject of
- Michael Hailu, Director, CTA such policy – agriculture.
- Dr. Lindiwe Sabanda/Southern Africa ART seeks to clarify the scope of agriculture in the 21st
century, the signals that demand clear and urgent policy
responses at the national level and stakeholder
participation in the policy process at all levels.
BREAK 10:30 – 11:00 am
11:00 – Panel 2: With global focus on climate change, the plight of land,
12:30 pm Saving Agriculture’s Physical Resources soils, water and agriculture’s other natural resources is
Panellists : being brought in focus. For decades, outdated land use
- Prof. Nazeer Ahmad policy/non-enforcement of zoning laws have led to serious
- Mrs. Lystra Fletcher-Paul land and water degradation, marine pollution and
- Mr. Erle Noronha deforestation.
- Dr. Susan Singh-Renton ART explores the situation with our soils, water and
marine resources against the backdrop of the need to
substantially increase the region’s food and nutrition
security.
LUNCH 12:30 – 2:00 pm
2:00 -3:30 Panel 3: Natural hazards are a natural part of life on earth.
pm Coping with Hazards – Recovering from Farming, in particular, given its dependence on natural
Disaster resources, is vulnerable to natural hazards and the
Panellists disasters that could arise when they occur. High rainfall,
- Keith Amiel/Jamaica hurricanes, pests and diseases, are among the natural
- Dhano Sookoo/Trinidad hazards that pose high risks to farming. The large
- Alain Thermil/Haiti numbers of small and resource constrained farmers often
- Dr. Guido Marcelle/Grenada do not have coping strategies and the absence of risk
mitigation programmes compounds the problems. ART
examines the issue of natural hazards, disasters and
issues critical to fast-tracking agriculture’s recovery after
disaster,
3:30 – Daily Round Up
4:00 pm
END OF DAY 1

ART Agenda
DAY 2 – Wednesday 20th October
Schedule Topic
9:00 - Panel 4: The ‘frontline’ has come under much attack over the last
10:30 am Re-Branding Extension to Service Chains 15 years at least, in terms of the relevance and
Panellists: effectiveness of Ministry of Agriculture services to
- Felix Leslie/MoA-Dominica facilitate change and transformation in agriculture. There
- Joe Pires/Caribbean Chemicals have been several often unanswered calls for private
- David Dolly/UWI-Extension sector to take over these services. To meet 2015
- José Fonseca/CTA development targets, extension will continue to be an
 ART Agenda
important player. Some questions remain: what services
are now required; who will provide them?
ART re-opens the extension debate in an attempt to get
clarity on what are the issues and prospects for moving
from tradition and re-branding Agriculture Extension.
BREAK 10:30 – 11:00 am
11:00 – Panel 5: Agriculture producers, both in the fresh produce and
12:30 pm Innovating the Agri-Business (product, processed products segments of the industry, have to
process, etc) contend with economic imperatives of business - intense
- Fredericka Deare/KAIRI and dynamic competition in agricultural markets, and
- Steve Maximay/SBI social imperatives of development – nutritious and safe
- Marian Hart/BADMC foods. It often seems that there is no middle ground in
- Allister Glean/TTABA planning for and/or achieving these objectives. However
they have one thing in common – the need to continuously
innovate, something which has become more imperative in
today’s world of climate change,
ART looks at the responses to innovation in Caribbean
agriculture and the sustainability of these for business,
food security and agricultural development in general.
LUNCH 12:30 – 2:00 pm
2:00 – Panel 6:
3:30 pm YiA - Preparing for 2015 agriculture A special panel done in collaboration with the Caribbean
Agriculture Forum for Youth
3:30 – Closing IICA
4:00 pm CTA
END OF DAY 2

Round ‘Table Manners’

ART is not 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 more
connected with agriculture stakeholders;
 a mechanism for interested, affected,
movers and shakers in agriculture to
make connections, communicate &
network for development