{"id":5774,"date":"2023-03-14T14:03:25","date_gmt":"2023-03-14T14:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/?p=5774"},"modified":"2023-03-14T14:09:14","modified_gmt":"2023-03-14T14:09:14","slug":"antigua-and-barbuda-national-agricultural-health-and-food-safety-policy-prioritization-workshop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/2023\/03\/14\/antigua-and-barbuda-national-agricultural-health-and-food-safety-policy-prioritization-workshop\/","title":{"rendered":"Antigua and Barbuda National Agricultural Health and Food Safety Policy Prioritization Workshop"},"content":{"rendered":"

The National Agricultural Health and Food Safety Policy Prioritization Workshop was held on March 7th<\/sup> 2023 and was organized in collaboration with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), and the Coordinating Council on Agricultural Health and Food Safety for Antigua and Barbuda (CCAHFSAB).<\/p>\n

In the opening and welcome remarks Craig Thomas, IICA National Specialist, indicated that Antigua and Barbuda was among the very few countries in the region to have established an agency to address issues on agricultural health and food safety and one that continues to work.\u00a0 Regarding the traditional affiliation of IICA with the subject area, \u201cI like to be a part of the process and not have something handed to me\u201d Thomas said.\u00a0 He continued by complimenting Dr. Janil Gore-Francis for her efforts and the work put in thus far.<\/p>\n

The greetings and brief remarks were delivered by Dr. Janil Gore-Francis, SPS National Enquiry Point\/Chief Plant Protection Officer.\u00a0 During her deliberation, she revealed how it all began, dating back to 2000 with an invitation to attend the Meeting of the SPS Committee of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva. IICA sponsored Antigua and Barbuda\u2019s participation in these meetings for several years.\u00a0 The Geneva meeting served to facilitate discussions on the WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement), and in this regard, a number of agricultural health and food safety related agencies began to meet on an ad hoc<\/em> basis to discuss topical SPS issues of national interest. \u00a0In 2015, a Cabinet Decision named the MOA as National Notification Authority for the SPS Agreement and established the CCAHFSAB from the previously informal national SPS Committee. Since its establishment, the Council has been engaged in various activities such as quarterly meetings, media appearances and sensitization workshops.\u00a0 \u201cDue to the above, Antigua and Barbuda was chosen as a pilot to develop a national agricultural health and food safety policy and action plan\u201d, Dr. Gore-Francis said.\u00a0 Additionally, she disclosed that the Council was multisectoral, comprising stakeholders such as Customs, Agriculture Extension, the Antigua and Barbuda Bureau of Standards, Fisheries, Trade, Plant Protection, Central Board of Health, Veterinary & Livestock, Consumers Association and Producers.<\/p>\n

The Director of Agriculture, Mr. Gregory Bailey, in his remarks, stated that the workshop was a timely and important one especially since we All have role to play in national food safety.\u00a0 Further, on the issue of food security, Mr. Bailey stated \u201cWhen we speak of food and nutrition security it is generally expected that matters related to food safety are automatically subsumed. This may be a fair assumption as there can be no security without safety; however, in practicality this requires conscious effort in order to become a consistent reality\u201d.<\/p>\n

In her remarks, Senator Knacyntar Nedd-Charles expressed fundamental concerns that Barbuda must always be included and be represented on committees and other bodies such as the CCAHFSAB.\u00a0 She further reiterated that Barbuda should also benefit from whatever is offered to Antigua.<\/p>\n

The Overview of the Situation Analysis was done by Ms. Stacy Rose, consultant, during which she outlined Antigua and Barbuda\u2019s agricultural health and food safety status and what needed to be accomplished. In this presentation, Antigua and Barbuda\u2019s strengths and weaknesses were revealed and several recommendations\/solutions were suggested.\u00a0 Following her exposition, workshop participants were divided into three groups for a technical working session, namely (1) Plant Protection\/Customs\/ Agro and Hydro growers\/Extension, (2) CBH\/Fisheries\/Veterinary Division\/CMC, (3) Analytical Services & Pesticides\/Education\/Private sector.<\/p>\n

In response to the consultant\u2019s request, the group discussions allowed for identification of gaps and other areas recommended to be addressed in the policy and action plan to be developed, in the areas of Organizational Review and Redesign, Strengthening of the legislative and Regulatory Framework, Capacity Building, and Information and communication. A subsequent plenary session facilitated presentations done on the discussions of each group. \u00a0Ms. Rose informed all that the information would be compiled into a report and submitted.\u00a0 The document, it is anticipated, would be the guide for the next phase of the process.<\/p>\n

The closing remarks and vote of thanks were delivered by Mrs. Dianne Lalla-Rodrigues, Director- Antigua and Barbuda Bureau of Standards.<\/p>\n

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The National Agricultural Health and Food Safety Policy Prioritization Workshop was held on March 7th 2023 and was organized in collaboration with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-notices"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5774"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5807,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5774\/revisions\/5807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}