PLANNED TRAINING MISSION OF DUTCH PARTNER UNIVERSITY TO COUNTRIES PARTICIPATING IN WATER-ENERGY-FOOD NEXUS PROJECT

In reference to the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus subproject of the Mexico-CARICOM-FAO Initiative “Cooperation for Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change in the Caribbean”, which the FAO implemented in collaboration with the Ministries of Agriculture in Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Jamaica and St. Kitts and Nevis. Under this project, the Dutch University Vrije (UV) was commissioned amongst others to:

· Establish a monitoring framework to measure the impact of WEF nexus interventions on food production, food security and efficiency of water and energy use in agriculture.

· Develop a decision-support tool (DST) for the selection of suitable sites for WEF nexus interventions.

The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (UN-FAO) on 18th October held a one-day workshop in Antigua for extension and technical officers within the Ministry of Agriculture, and Farmers. Following this workshop, a training session on DST was held the following week in St. Kitts during 24th to 27th.

Attending this training was Mr. Tamesh Sookdyal, Statistical Officer within the Statistical Research and Information Technology Department of the Ministry of Agriculture. According to Sookdyal the training in relation to urban gardening development and site allocation tool. However, in terms of Antigua and Barbuda the discussion was not to create urban gardens since there was no lands space additionally this was the same for other countries in the region such as Jamaica and Barbados. “There was a common agreement that the model for urban gardens for those territories would not necessarily be applicable because of the land usage which is borderline farm rather than an urban garden”, Mr. Sookdyal said. The training was about a statistical tool that was demonstrated for urban garden development. The tool showed all that was needed for urban garden development without having to visit all the sites and assess whether a site was suitable or not.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sookdyal is in the yellow shirt