Reference no: EM133355312

Case Study-Caribbean Food Security and the Private Sector "Gervase Warner, the CEO of Massy Holdings was direct. Speaking in Trinidad, at the second regional Agri-Investment forum as chairman of the CARICOM Private Sector Organization, he said, "Food security has clearly become front and centre, a critical issue for our survival. It is very clear to us we are not going to get help from the colonizers of the past, we are not going to get help from big developing countries." He told participants that if the private sector invested in agricultural production in Belize, Guyana, Trinidad and elsewhere, it would be possible to produce 25 per cent of the region's food and agricultural requirements by 2025, reducing the present US $4 billion cost of CARICOM's food imports by at least US $1.25 billion. His remarks came as conflict in Europe, sanctions, global decoupling, climate change, and drought are causing energy, fertilizer, and transport prices to surge, making the long-term economic outlook for food security challenging for every nation that is a net importer. The forum indicated that some progress towards achieving CARICOM's 2025 food production target is happening in Jamaica, St. Lucia, and Guyana. CARICOM will, however, have to involve large-scale provision of agricultural lands in Guyana and Suriname; the development of an intraregional shipping service; the construction of a regional food hub in Barbados; the development of value-added agro-processing facilities in the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States and elsewhere; and the possible use of Suriname or Venezuela natural gas, to produce fertilizer for regional sale and export. Large corporations have to be convinced, however, that such plans are commercially viable and executable. Economist Maria Dukharan is of the view that the principal reason for the reluctance on the part of the regional private sector for investment in agriculture is the "dis-ease of doing business" in the region. She believes that this is affected by climate risks in the Eastern Caribbean, the smallness of market size, limited access to credit, and difficulties penetrating industries already dominated by a few big private players. There are also formal foreign exchange restrictions in Barbados and The Bahamas. The region has to restructure and accept responsibility for its own food security. Preferential trading arrangements for traditional exports have ended in Western Europe and Canada. Caribbean governments have instead allowed the influx of cheap, imported, subsidized food and allowed emigration (of locals) and the growth in tourism to relieve the pressure. 

A. Identify FIVE levels of regional integration.

B. State briefly what is meant by 'food security.'

C. Explain THREE handicaps to achieving food security in the Caribbean that were found in the article.

D. State THREE benefits of having a regional integration body.

E. Suggest TWO ways in which the Tourism industry can assist in regional food security.