At the recently concluded 18th CARICOM Heads of Government Conference in Kingstown, St Vincent, food security was once again high on the agenda.

Faced with the varied challenges of increasing dependence on imported food, inability to compete on the world market, as well as the threats posed by man-made and natural disasters, CARICOM/CARIFORUM countries have sought the support of its international partners to protect its food supply.

In response to these efforts, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), has for the past four years, been pivotal in providing technical assistance and funding worth approximately US$9.9 million via the Regional Programme for Food Security, which operates in all 15 CARICOM/ CARIFORUM member states. US$5 million of this support came from the Italian contribution to the FAO Trust Fund for Food Security and Food Safety and the rest from the FAO Technical Cooperation Programme.

Barbados and the other countries of CARICOM/CARIFORUM have benefited in the areas of crop, livestock and aquaculture production and productivity, strengthened capacities in several aspects of policy formulation, capacity building in improved quality assurance food supply systems and studies to address food insecurity especially among the most vulnerable groups.

Further technical support from the FAO to improve regional food supply on a sustainable basis has resulted in a regional project to upscale the current programme for additional funding in the amount of US$158 million. Of this amount just under US$22 million is foreseen as technical assistance or grant aid.

The remaining US$137 million includes a set of national bankable
project profiles prepared by CARICOM/CARIFORUM member states, with FAO technical assistance. This upscaled regional project for food security will be considered for funding by different financing agencies at a Donor's meeting to be held in Trinidad and Tobago
on June 2.

Objectives

The programme of upscaled activities has three main objectives: to strengthen food, agricultural production, marketing systems and enterprises, and institutional capacity for ensuring food security; to improve the capacity and policies for managing key threats to food security and to promote the consumption of safe and nutritious food.

The programme targets activities that will assist especially small scale agriculture and food producers as well as agri-food marketers who are most heavily impacted by negative shocks to the agricultural sector.

It also places special emphasis on the inclusion of youth and vulnerable social groups such as low-income rural households, workers in traditional agriculture, the urban poor and those living with HIV/AIDS.

This elaborated programme seeks
to build on the success and lessons learnt during the implementation of ongoing regional and national food security activities. It also recognises the priorities of the initiative of Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo concerning "Interventions To Alleviate The Key Binding Constraints To The Agricultural Sector In CARICOM Countries. The set of binding constraints and the associated interventions better known as the Jagdeo Initiative is the adopted framework for action, for achieving competitiveness and sustainable development in regional agriculture.

In addition to the above there has been an agreement within the ACP-EU Framework, to support another proposal from FAO for activities in food security in CARICOM/CARIFORUM countries, in the amount of just under US$15 million.

This proposal seeks to direct increased efforts at agricultural diversification, increased enterprise development and competitiveness, capacity building and institutional strengthening for investment and technology development with attention to risk management, fishery and aquaculture development, agri-service sector improvement, information system development and training in agricultural trade negotiation.

As in the case of the upscaled regional food security programme, this second proposal was influenced by the priorities in the Jagdeo Initiative, as well as the national investment strategies for agriculture of the member states and the national medium term priority frameworks for FAO assistance in the region. (PR)