Barbados Agriculture Minister Chairs IICA Executive Committee

(Barbados Government Information Service) Minister of Agriculture, Food and Nutritional Security, Indar Weir, has been selected as Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).

During the Forty-Third Regular Meeting of the Executive Committee, on July 19, at the headquarters of IICA in San José, Costa Rica, Mr. Weir was nominated and selected by ministers and senior officials of Agriculture from Latin America and the Caribbean.

This is the first time in IICA’s 50-year existence that a representative from Barbados will serve as Chairman of the Executive Committee.

The Minister’s two-year appointment will see him seeking to propose measures to deal with the water crisis and strengthen food security. Those measures will also assist in the development of the domestic apiculture industry; animal feed research; rural community agriculture; research on bunchy top disease affecting papaya; farmable livelihood projects for persons with disabilities; strengthening agri-food systems; and the establishment of an Innovation Centre for Agriculture.

IICA promotes agricultural development and rural well-being in the region. It has succeeded in identifying challenges and opportunities, and has evolved into an international technical cooperation organisation that permanently responds to the new demands of the agriculture sector.

Source: CARICOM TODAY