Climate-Smart Agriculture Symposium sets stage for increased investments
over,” citing the payments made by persons issued with tickets by the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) for breaches. Data indicates that 300 of the over 500 tickets issued between January and August this year were paid.
STRENGTHENED STRUCTURE
The minister said amendments to the law must be supported by a strengthened enforcement structure.
To this end, he disclosed that the ministry is training a new cadre of municipal police officers now enrolled at the National Police Academy at Twickenham Park, St Catherine.
Additionally, he said the ministry will be reviewing the complement of municipal officers at the NSWMA to strengthen it.
“I believe that persons must be made to understand the danger that littering poses, even if it means that we have to institute some drastic actions,” McKenzie said. Participants at the Climate-Smart Agriculture investments round-table discussion on day two of the symposium. From second left: Paul Chin, acting general manager, Development Bank of Jamaica; Dr Andre Haughton, economist and lecturer at University of the West Indies; Sylvia Tomlinson, agri-business entrepreneur; and Dr Wayne Henry, director general at the Planning Institute of Jamaica. The session was chaired by journalist and attorney-atlaw Dionne Jackson-Miller (left).
THE NEED for increased investments in agriculture was the consensus shared among agriculture stakeholders and climate-change interests at the second staging of the Climate-Smart Agriculture Symposium, held from September 13-14 at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel, St Andrew, under the theme ‘Growing Agriculture and Incomes in The Face of Climate Change’.
The two-day symposium was hosted by the USAID-funded Jamaica Rural Economy and Ecosystems Adapting to Climate Change II project in collaboration with the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries. It examined climate-related issues affecting Jamaican agri-businesses and explored climatesmart approaches and opportunities to address these issues in order to grow agriculture and incomes. Participants included farmers, private-sector organisations, research and educational institutions, financial institutions, technical experts in government, extension specialists and development assistance partners supporting the sector.
NEW TECHNOLOGIES
It is expected that the experiences, best management practices and research information shared at the symposium will create impetus for the commercialisation of new technologies to be accessed by the agriculture industry.
An online Climate-Smart Agriculture Community of Practice was also introduced, which is intended to seek broader involvement of stakeholders from diverse backgrounds in order to continue the information exchange beyond the symposium.
First staged in 2015, the symposium presents an opportunity for Jamaican early adopters (climate-smart agriculture leaders) to share their experience with the sector and the region, while learning more about the regional and international trends in climatesmart agriculture.