by GERCINE CARTER

A CLARION CALL has been sounded for a Caribbean food security plan within the context of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).

Director-General of the Inter-American Institute for Co-operation on Agriculture (IAICA) Dr Chelston Brathwaite has warned that failure to implement such a plan now will mean even higher food prices for the region tomorrow, and continuing increases in the region's food import bill currently estimated at US$3.5 billion annually.

Predicting present high food prices will be the reality for a long time, Brathwaite said: "The plan must promote joint actions to take advantage of national comparative advantages such as land, water and markets and must be based on strategic partnership between the governments and private sectors," recognising that "no country in the region can obtain an acceptable level of food security on its own".

The IAICA head made the strong appeal as he delivered the annual Olive Trotman Memorial Lecture to the Barbados Public Workers' Co-operative Credit Union Limited at Sherbourne Conference Centre on Friday Night.

Speaking to a packed auditorium, which included Minister of Agriculture Senator Haynesley Benn, Brathwaite outlined several initiatives he advised were necessary for the formulation of such a food plan. He suggested establishing regional enterprises in livestock, poultry, tropical fruits, root crops and vegetables as part of a CSME agricultural policy; the promotion of agro-processing industries based on locally-produced crops for food and animal feed; and a regional agricultural insurance programme, insuring farmers against losses from natural disasters and praedial larceny.

The agricultural expert also said land reform programmes must be implemented to provide land to landless farmers, at the same time stressing that agricultural lands should not be approved for real estate or recreation. "We need to see land in a different context . . . land for food, land for energy, land for water, land for recreation, but we must define them."

He proposed that ministries of agriculture in the Caribbean should be converted to ministries of food, agriculture and rural development giving them total responsibility for food imports, food production, food safety and food security.

"The regional agricultural policies of the past century which promoted the export of sugar, bananas, citrus, cocoa, coffee and the use of income earned to import food is no longer viable in a global economic climate where the income from such exports continues to decline and the price of food imports continues to increase," Brathwaite said.