The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet minister has urged that more financing be made available to The Bahamas and other small island developing states (SIDS) to help them combat the threat of climate change and food insecurity.

Clay Sweeting, minister of agriculture, marine resources and Family Island affairs, told a preliminary meeting before the upcoming ministerial conference of the United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO): “In order for us to grow the agricultural sector in our relevant countries we must do so in a united front. We need to re-assess how countries qualify to have access to funding and assistance.”

Speaking during a panel discussion on building resilience to shocks, and scaling this up for more sustainable and inclusive development, Mr Sweeting also highlighted challenges facing The Bahamas that include lack of crop insurance, an aging farmer population and the continued impact of Hurricane Dorian.

This, he added, continues to limit the productivity and potential of the Bahamian agriculture sector, and its ability to contribute more to the national gross domestic product (GDP). Maintaining that access to funding is critical for The Bahamas to move forward, he said: "The reality is at the end of the day financing governs, for the most part, how we correct the other issues.

"I am sure that we are all doing what we can because we love our world, we love our countries, we love our people, and we want to do what we can to combat climate change, increase food production and help our farmers, but even the greatest countries in the world heavily subsidise their farmers.

"There must be, must be in 2023, where we can find a mechanism that provides real accessible opportunities for all countries that need assistance to build strong agricultural food systems – production, processing and distribution." Mr Sweeting thus joined other ministers and vice-ministers in calling for the transformation of agrifood systems to make them more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable.

The FAO's biennial ministerial conference began today and closes on July 7. Mr Sweeting spoke at an event on transforming agrifood systems to increase their resilience, and how to harness the potential of SIDS, least developed countries and landlocked developing countries on June 29.

The meeting proposed the creation of a ministerial network for such countries with technical support from the FAO. This would share experiences, knowledge and collectively build resilience to climate change and disasters; resilience to food insecurity; and secure investments and access to finance in order to scale-up transformation of agrifood systems in the face of climate change.

QU Dongyu, the FAO director-general, told participants that with countries working in partnership together, more and better progress could be achieved towards transforming agrifood systems and increasing resilience.

Countries that were represented in the talks included Haiti, Jamaica, Barbados, the Dominican Republic, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Cuba, Grenada and Paraguay. Other attendees were from Benin, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cook Islands, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Madagascar, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Maldives, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Niger, Palau, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Togo, Tonga, Uzbekistan and Yemen.