Agriculture ministers from the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) met in Dominica on Friday amid concerns that the rising cost of fuel will continue to have an impact on the sector in the sub-region.
“I am taking over the chairmanship at a difficult time for agriculture specifically. We know the rising costs of fuel, the rising costs of feed are causing significant food shortages around the world,” said Dominica’s Agriculture Minister, Fidel Grant.
He said the meeting intends to prioritize the OECS in terms of what “it is that we should be doing” adding” we hope to see improvements in terms of reduction in food prices (and) we are hoping to see what measures that can be put in place to increase (food) production so that the costs to households could be reduced”.
Grant said he expects significant input from the OECS, as an organization, in supporting collectively and individually member states dealing with the issue of food security.
“We are also looking at how we could develop the blue economy across the region. There are several ongoing projects which support the blue economy and what we are hoping to do is to see how we can consolidate that,” Grant said.
An estimated 2.8 million people or nearly 40 percent of the population in the English-speaking Caribbean is food insecure, one million more than in April 2020, according to the results of a recent survey conducted by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the United Nations World Food Program (WFP). Severe food insecurity continues to increase in the region with the current figure 72 percent higher when compared to April 2020. High food prices continue to affect people’s ability to afford a nutritious diet with 93 percent of respondents reporting higher prices for food compared to 59 percent in April 2020.
The OECS groups the islands of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts-Nevis, Anguilla, Montserrat, and the British Virgin Islands.
CMC
 met in Dominica on Friday amid concerns){kind=link}