FAO Water-Energy Food (WEF) Nexus Workshop Opening Ceremony

The Opening ceremony and the first day of the FAO (based on the FAO’s Strategic Framework 2022-31) two-day workshop was held on Monday 20th at CARDI. This workshop specifically for food producers and backyard gardeners was fully supported by the Ministry of Agriculture, IICA, GARDC, CARDI and facilitated by Mr. Paul Lucas, (Water Resource Management Specialist) CARDI representative for Antigua and Barbuda.

The participants were divided into two groups and the workshop would be held over the next two weeks on Monday and Tuesday.  Therefore, participants who started on a Monday were expected to complete the workshop on the following Monday and vice versa.

In his remarks, Gregory Bailey, Director of Agriculture emphasized that “Agriculture” is to be regarded as a business and that it is expected that everyone in attendance would learn something and share information. “We are here today to educate each other on various considerations and concepts for pursuing agriculture generally and specifically to Climate Change Adaptation challenges”, said Mr. Bailey.

With great expectation, it is anticipated that this WEF forum will continue to provide the platform to better comprehensively define this concept within our local context towards effective implementation at the grassroots levels, Mr. Bailey added.

The director also mentioned that in Antigua and Barbuda suffers from the scarcity of water and the cost of energy is the key contributing factor to the availability distribution and access.  This further contributes significantly to the reason why we import over 80% of the food we consume.

“I challenge this forum and stakeholders to strive to forge a better link between water and energy towards improving food production, transportation, storage and use in an integrated manner”, Mr. Bailey said.

Director Bailey concluded his remarks by adding, that We all ought to strive for resilient and sustainable agri-food systems that promote better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind.

 

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