Minister Grisha Heyliger-Martin: Regional Cooperation Essential for Food Security

Besides stimulating food production in St. Maarten and setting up a full-fledged, dedicated, and functioning agriculture department, the recent visit of Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Traffic and Telecommunication, Grisha Heyliger-Martin to the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis focused on regional cooperation as an essential strategy to securing food security for the Caribbean.

Heyliger-Marten discussed this in meetings with the Honorable Ministers Samal Duggins of St. Kitts and Eric Evelyn of Nevis and all agreed that reducing our food import expenditures by 25% by 2025, otherwise known as the “25 by 2025” goal, should be pursued.

“In order for us to achieve this as a region and individual nations, more focus is needed on knowledge-sharing, investments, and trade and logistics when it comes to agriculture,” Heyliger-Marten said.

Furthermore, she noted that this position was confirmed at a forum last week titled the “Caribbean Investment Forum 2024” in Georgetown, Guyana. The topic of the panel discussion was: “Investing in sustainable agriculture for a flourishing Caribbean.”

One of the main conclusions of the discussion was that investments in, and financing for agriculture should be made more easily accessible.

One way to achieve “25 by 2025” is through the EU-CDB Food Security Programme, the Minister explained.

The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has entered into a EUR 10 million Contribution Agreement with the European Union (EU) to provide assistance to CARIFORUM Member States to undertake projects geared towards enhancing food security systems.

This, Heyliger-Marten said, “includes investments in the development of agriculture and fisheries food production systems, increased access to financing for the sector, improving agri-food value chains and solutions, and fostering greater resilience of farmers and fishermen.”

The Minister said, “Seeing that St. Maarten is scheduled to achieve associate membership of CARICOM this year, I will look into the option of our government making use of the EU-CDB program, which could benefit our local agriculture sector. Minister Duggins has offered to assist us with getting involved in this manner, and I look forward to discussing this matter with my counterparts in Marigot as well.”

Meanwhile, as a follow-up to her visit to St. Kitts and Nevis, Min. Heyliger-Marten has started to prepare “stimulating incentives for our local farmers” to support them and contribute to an increase in local food production. Among the new initiatives are supporting educational and promotional programs to increase the involvement of the next generations of farmers on the island.

“All of the above will be done in conjunction with initiatives to increase mutually beneficial agriculture trade with St. Kitts and Nevis in consultation with its government representatives,” Heyliger-Marten added. “To this end, Minister Duggins has extended an offer to establish a mutual agreement between our respective governments moving forward.”​