During his recent visit to Trinidad and Tobago to attend the 45th Caricom heads of government summit, US State Secretary Antony Blinken announced a $US5.5 million contribution to assist small farmers in the Caribbean. He spoke at the Hyatt Regency, Port of Spain, last Wednesday.
Pertaining to the contribution, his remarks were:
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“The United States is also committed to partnering with you to address growing food insecurity across the region. This has, of course, intensified dramatically in recent years, a combination of climate change, of COVID, of conflict, including Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.”
“According to a recent UN report, one in two people – one in two people – in the Caribbean cannot afford a healthy diet. In response, the United States continues to provide emergency food assistance to parts of the region where people are experiencing acute hunger and malnutrition. Just since February of last year, we’ve contributed an additional $13.5 billion to fight hunger around the world. We remain the World Food Programme’s largest donor, providing more than 50 percent of its budget.”
“But at the same time, one of the things I’ve heard very clearly from talking to so many of our partners is a desire to be able to grow sufficient food to provide for your own people. We’re bringing to bear our expertise from across the entire government to help achieve that goal – from the Department of Agriculture to the Environmental Protection Agency to USAID. Today I’m pleased to announce that we’ll dedicate an additional nearly 5.5 million to help small farmers in the Caribbean boost productivity, increase access to technology and markets, and adopt climate smart practices.”
Blinken noted that the US is lending its expertise from across the entire Government to help achieve that goal; that is, from the Department of Agriculture to the Environmental Protection Agency to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The US representative also spoke on a number of other initiatives the United States is planning to assist the region, including crime, climate change and, of course, Haiti.
