Almost, if not all, of the Heads of Government who spoke at the opening of the Agri-Investment Forum and Exhibition held this morning at the National Cultural Center, referenced, in some way or the other, the usefulness of the Jagdeo Initiative as a tool for the realization of vision 25 by 2025.
Launched in 2005, the Jagdeo Initiative is a strategy for removing constraints to the development of agriculture in the region. The strategy was formally dubbed the Jagdeo Initiative- strengthening agriculture for sustainable development. The Strategy provided a list of constraints accompanied by “necessary interventions”.
At a time when many Caricom member states are vigorously chasing the goal to reduce the region’s food import bill by 25 percent by the year 2025, the Jagdeo Initiative, a seventeen-year-old strategy, remains pertinent.
During his address this morning, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne said the region would have been better off “if we had truly implemented the Jagdeo initiative.”
Meanwhile, Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley plain and straight called for a revitalization of the initiative.
Prime Minister of Dominica Roosevelt Skerrit said, “Jagdeo worked on this diligently for many years, but we failed to take action.”
Prime Minister of Trinidad Keith Rowley said that one of the main reasons he is here in Guyana is to “revitalize the hope and energy held out to us by the Jagdeo initiative.”
Other Heads of Government expressed similar views.
