The Minister and his host, the Director General of IICA,
Chelston Brathwaite, signed an agreement calling for adjustments in the
priorities of the technical cooperation agenda being implemented in that nation.
Under the agreement, priority will be assigned to topics such
as technology exchanges between Costa Rica and Jamaica for the production of
cassava in greenhouses, and to the modernization of the structure of the
Ministry of Agriculture, with a view to upgrading its management, supervision
and evaluation mechanisms.
Minister Tufton also met with his counterpart, Javier Flores,
with whom he discussed the agricultural chain approach as it is applied in Costa
Rica, and learned of a number of national programs such as the ones on tropical
roots, pineapples and protected environments.
On the last day of their visit, the delegation went on a field
trip which took them to Zarcero, Pital and La Fortuna de San Carlos, near the
border with Nicaragua, to visit hydroponic, greenhouse and organic production
projects.
True contribution of agriculture
The aim of
the research the Minster requested of IICA is to determine the true contribution
of the expanded agricultural sector to the gross domestic product of Jamaica, as
it has done in other countries since 2002. The methodology applied makes it
possible to identify the forward and backward linkages of agriculture, which,
when taken into consideration, reveal that the contribution of agriculture is as
much as seven times greater than initially thought.
In his first conversations with the Jamaican delegation,
Brathwaite underscored the fact that agriculture is a strategic sector whose
contribution is much greater than that reported in official statistics.
“To be able to meet the challenges of the new century, a new
minister of agriculture must have the tools required to negotiate with and
convince the government and decision makers in the country of the importance,
for example, of investing in rural areas. No tool will be more useful than
information on the true contribution of agriculture to the national economy,”
said Brathwaite.
He offered an overview of the challenges of the new millennium,
which go beyond simple production and affect a variety of sectors, including the
social sector, where the war on poverty is waged; the energy sector, in which
agriculture is called upon to play a key role; and the environmental sector,
where, among other things, it is necessary to seek solutions to the impact of
climate change on food production.
The challenges, he explained, are multisectoral and will
require cooperation between the Minister of Agriculture and the rest of the
Cabinet, and support at the highest level, from the President of the country.
He also recommended the adoption of national policies on
agriculture because they provide long-term guidelines for the sector, are
defined jointly by the public and private sectors, and, being endorsed by the
legislature, have the force of law.
Jamaica 2009
Minister Tufton’s visit to
IICA also served to begin the lead up to two key meetings to be held in Jamaica
in 2009: the Fifth Ministerial Meeting on Agriculture and Rural Life within the
context of the Summit of the Americas process, and the Fifteenth Meeting of the
Inter-American Board of Agriculture (IABA).
The IICA Representative in Jamaica, Cynthia Currie, and the
Permanent Secretary of the Ministry Agriculture of that country, Donovan
Stanberry, met with the Technical Secretaries of both meetings, Bernardo Badani
and Fernando del Risco, respectively, to go over what is needed to make both
meetings a success.
More information
cynthia.currie@iica.int