ROSEAU, Dominica: Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and the Environment, Senator Dr John Colin McIntyre has identified some of the challenges of the enabling environment affecting the growth and development of the agricultural sector in Dominica.
The Minister was at the time speaking at the opening ceremony of the National Symposium on Agriculture on Wednesday at the State House in Roseau.
According to McIntyre, some of these challenges are:
- The impact of trade policies and access to external markets on the agricultural sector, manifested by the move by the European Union to a tariff-only regime for bananas from 2006; negotiations between CARIFORUM and the EU over Economic Partnership Agreements; the challenges of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and the birth of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).
- Macroeconomic policies and levels of investment in agriculture.
- Inadequate availability and low productivity of labour in the agricultural sector impacts negatively on the sector.
- Land policy and legislation reflected in existing forms of land tenure that hinder the sale or lease of land to others and the use of land as collateral. This situation constrains investments, leads to abandoned or under-utilized lands and restricts efforts to increase the size of holdings.
- The costly system of deeds registration is a further constraint to formalizing tenure. A study to examine legislation governing the sale and registration of land will soon be implemented and improvements in this area will be put in place in the medium-term.
- The discipline of all farmers and exporters to adhere to the standards which are applicable to the domestic and export markets is critical to Dominica maintaining and increasing its market share in today’s competitive markets.
- The scope exists for improvement to the business environment to assist in the further commercialization of agriculture.
The feature address at the opening ceremony was delivered by Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit. Remarks were also delivered by representatives from the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, the Food and Agricultural Organization, the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute, OECS and CARICOM.
Other invited guests at the symposium included China's Ambassador to Dominica, Deng Boqing, the Venezuelan Ambassador to Dominica, Carmen Martinez De Grijalva and the OAS Representative in Dominica, Paul Brown.
The National Symposium on Agriculture was due to end with the presentation of an Action Plan. It is expected that recommendations coming out of the symposium will be put before the Cabinet for consideration. |
