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Last Updated: Oct 18, 2017 - 11:31:04 AM |
On Monday 16 October, Mr. Barton Clarke, Executive Director of the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) delivered the keynote address at the Agriculture session of the Bahamas Diplomatic Week, hosted by The Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Agriculture development has been recognised a vehicle for stimulating growth, trade and a contributor to food and nutrition security on the island. Since opening its office in Bahamas, CARDI has been working with key stakeholders to implement activities aimed at developing the small ruminants industry, improving cropping systems and training and capacity building in technical and vocational areas.
During his address Clarke highlighted that under the new Strategic Plan 2018-2022, the Institute will focus on value chain services, institutional strengthening, policy and advocacy, partnerships and strategic alliances. A differentiated strategy will guide the implementation of activities across the CARDI member states. According to Clarke, this will enable the Institute to implement activities that better meet the needs of stakeholders in country.
For the Bahamas, CARDI will focus on the developing intensive crop and livestock systems emphasizing the development of resilient systems and intellectual property rights. Leveraging the strength of the tourist industry, agri-tourism and agri business development will be a major thrust of CARDI’s work on the islands. Organic agriculture, gastronomic tourism, value added product development, food safety systems and the generation of market studies to inform industry development will be important components of these programmes. Partnerships and Policy and Advocacy are central to the success of the sector and so CARDI will continue to intensify its efforts to build partnerships that will directly benefit agriculture. Moreover, CARDI, through its Country Representative and Animal Scientist Michele Singh, will work to ensure the results of our work are used to support policy development in the Bahamas on areas related to food and nutrition security and climate change etc.
In building an innovative, resilient, competitive Bahamian agricultural sector, Clarke highlighted the need for agriculture to be viewed as a business, and a catalyst for youth involvement, information and communication technologies, investment and political will.
Diplomatic week is an annual event in The Bahamas aimed at strengthening bilateral ties and advancing the social, cultural and economic exchanges between The Bahamas and International and regional organizations with resident and non-resident representation.
© Copyright 2017 by thebahamasweekly.com
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