Agricultural technicians from St Vincent and the Grenadines were joined by their counterparts from across the region from March 25 to 26 for a two-day workshop designed to address the development of capacities for the micro-propagation of plants, in particular roots and tuber plant species.{{more}}

This workshop was part of a programme of activities for agricultural development that is currently being implemented in the CARIFORUM region.

The other participating countries were: Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts, St Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago.

The programme, titled “The Agriculture Policy Programme,” is funded (8.6 million) under the 10th European Development Fund (EDF) and executed through a contribution agreement signed between the European Commission (EC) and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), with implementing partners Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) and the CARICOM Community Secretariat (CCS)/CARIFORUM.

The primary aim of the programme is to contribute to enhancing the regional capabilities within the agricultural sector in eradicating poverty and in the process increase the capability of regional agricultural development organizations of the Caribbean to address the development needs of smallholder agriculture.

The programme consists of three major components addressing: (1) Strengthening regional agricultural development strategy; (2) Improving dissemination and adoption of applied research and appropriate technologies, including agriculture- oriented measures in disaster preparedness and climate change adaptation and (3) Enterprise development under improved market linkages.

The CCS is responsible for the implementation of component one, while CARDI and IICA are responsible for the implementation of components two and three respectively. The programme is grounded at the national level through the actions of the implementing agencies working in close collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry, Forestry, Fisheries and Rural Transformation and producer organisations who are expected to be beneficiaries of the action.

The lead facilitator at the workshop was Vincentian Rohan McDonald / Biotechnologist, while the workshop organizers were Dr. Gregory Robin / CARDI Representative and Michael Dalton / IICA Technical Specialist. The workshop took place at the Orange Hill Tissue Culture Laboratory which is recognized as one of the foremost micro-propagation facilities in the region.