Mexico and IICA begin agricultural training for Caribbean countries

*The courses are part of a capacity-building program designed to promote agricultural development in the Caribbean.*

Puebla, Mexico, July 17, 2014 (IICA). With the aim of promoting agricultural development in the Caribbean and south-south cooperation, this week in Mexico training got under way for at least 150 agricultural producers from 15 Caribbean countries, under an agreement between the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA) of Mexico and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).

The courses will be given by specialists of Mexico’s Graduate School (COLPOS), the Regional Center for Integrated Services in Protected Agriculture (CRESIAP), the Autonomous University of Chapingo (UACH), the Mexican Institute of Water Technology (IMTA) and the Yucatán Scientific Research Center (CICY).

The coordinator of IICA’s Center for the Promotion of Technical Capabilities and Leadership, Franklin Marín, pointed out that the training was designed to foster agricultural development in the Caribbean region and promote Mexico’s international cooperation with the Caribbean, based on the capacity, talent and experience of Mexico’s educational and research institutions.

“South-South cooperation is a priority for IICA, as it helps nations tackle common problems and undertake joint efforts for their development,” Marín observed during the opening ceremony of a course on family agriculture, in the city of Puebla.

The Director General of COLPOS, Jesús Moncada de la Fuente, explained that COLPOS-Puebla had developed a model for family agriculture that made it possible reduce capital costs, overcome food problems and harness natural resources.

The participants in the training courses include producers and technical officers and professionals drawn from the public and private agricultural sectors of Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Haiti, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Dominican Republic.

A CRESIAP course on protected agriculture got under way in Jalisco, while in Veracruz COLPOS is implementing a course on rural tourism.

At the end of July, in the State of Mexico, the University of Chapingo will give a course on sheep production; in Morelos, the IMTA will conduct another on soil and water conservation; and in Yucatán, the CICY will provide a course on phytopathology techniques.

The courses are part of a capacity-building program designed to promote agricultural development in the Caribbean that is comprised of three stages. The first entails technical-practical training for Caribbean producers; the second will consist of follow-up to programs carried out by the Caribbean trainees in their respective countries; and the third will involve Mexican academics and researchers traveling to the Caribbean to evaluate and reinforce on the ground the new expertise acquired by the trainees.

The program is being carried out under the technical cooperation agreement that SAGARPA and IICA signed in April of this year in Yucatán, during the Third Mexico-Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Summit.

Mexico’s Secretariat of Foreign Affairs (SER), through the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation (AMEXCID), is supervising and assisting with the program.

For further information, contact:
frnaklin.marin@iica.int