Caribbean experts to focus on family farming, technology for agri

PARAMARIBO, Suriname, Oct 6 (CND).-Caribbean Week of Agriculture 2014 (CWA2014) kicks off here on Monday with a heavy focus on family farming and the use of technology in agriculture, according to top officials.

Executive Director of the Caribbean Agriculture and Research Development Institute (CARDI), Dr. Arlington Chesney said a hackathon (Agri Hack) scheduled for Thursday would see youths from across the region showing off applications (apps) that can benefit the region’s agriculture sector. “Agriculture is changing and is no longer land and labour but it is primarily knowledge and information,” he said. Youths are also expected to attend the several workshops that have been planned for CWA scheduled for October 6 to 12 under the theme “Transforming Caribbean Agriculture through Family Farming.”

Executive Director of The Netherlands-based Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), Michael Hailu said in a message for the event in this former Dutch colony that during CWA, CTA would showcase the finalists of the Science and Agriculture Film and Video Competition and ICT applications developed within the framework of the AgriHack Talent Caribbean Competition – both interventions aimed at bringing youth into agriculture. Organisers also plan to show films of participatory mapping exercises from Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago, and we will launch the Regional Synthesis Report of ICT’s Uptake and Usage in Agricultural Value Chains in the Caribbean, a result of a joint effort between CTA and CARDI.  more