Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Climate Change, Honourable Lisa Jawahir, is underscoring the importance of stronger regional collaboration in agriculture while expressing optimism about the tenure of IICA’s new Director General, Ibrahim Mohammed.
Speaking on the sidelines of recent regional engagements, Jawahir said she was encouraged by the emphasis placed on innovation, sustainability, and collective action by Caribbean leaders, particularly Guyana’s President.
“I was very inspired by the address of His Excellency President Ali of Guyana and his support for our fellow regional partner,” Jawahir said. “He stressed heavily on the digitization of agriculture. He spoke a lot about the value added on how we can be self-sustainable and be self-sufficient, not just being food secure, but ensuring how we can substitute those foods that we normally import.”
She noted that Saint Lucia, Guyana, and other CARICOM states remain committed to the regional “25 by 25” initiative, which aims to reduce the region’s food import bill by 25 per cent.
“Guyana, Saint Lucia and other partners in CARICOM have stressed heavily on achieving our 25 for 25 mandate, which is to reduce our regional food import bill by 25 per cent by the year 2025,” Jawahir explained. “We have now added five more years to 2030, and there are several things on the table, like Dr Ali said and like the new Director General said, to ensure how we can be self-sufficient in the Caribbean.”
The minister said Saint Lucia is keen to deepen its partnership with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, particularly in research, climate resilience, and sustainable development.
Said Jawahir, “As a research institution, we are very interested in learning more about how we can expand what we already do in Saint Lucia. We have already had discussions with the team at IICA on how they can come down to Saint Lucia to do somewhat of a landscape assessment.”
Jawahir added that climate-smart and climate-resilient practices are a growing priority for the island.
“I am now the Minister for Fisheries and, of course, for food security, but sustainable development and merging that sector and finding ways to build more climate-smart and climate-resilient practices in Saint Lucia is very important to us,” she noted.
Addressing the future of agriculture, Jawahir highlighted the need to change perceptions among young people and make the sector more attractive through innovation and science.
“One thing that I have observed as a new and young minister for agriculture is that a lot of our young people have in their minds that agriculture is about getting your nails dirty. We want to really explore more innovative techniques using science to ensure how we can make it more attractive for the next generation,” she said.
Looking ahead, Jawahir said regional cooperation will be a key focus under the new IICA leadership.
She continued, “I believe it is very important for Mr. Mohammed to understand how we can work together as a region. Several countries have several opportunities and various things that they export, but how do we work together more closely to ensure that we have more regional cooperation in the Caribbean?”
She pointed to potential partnerships beyond the Caribbean, including with countries such as Paraguay.
“I understand that we have Paraguay, for example, who is a heavy exporter of livestock and meat, and Femusha wants to look very closely at how we can become a partner and how we can learn more about that,” Jawahir explained.
As Director General Mohammed begins his tenure, Jawahir said Saint Lucia looks forward to meaningful engagement and stronger ties.