August 2013


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ENTER CAEPNet

For two days in February, 30 regional agricultural extension leaders were brought together by staff of the Extension Unit of the Faculty of Food and Agriculture at the St. Augustine Campus. The idea of such a meeting had the blessings of both Campus Principal Professor Clement Sankat and interim Dean Carlisle Pemberton. Their faith was justified when a new organisation, the Caribbean Agricultural Extension Network Providers – CAEPNet for short – was born.

CAEPNet was created to support the work of agricultural extension at a time when the region’s food import bill is increasing at alarming rates. Practitioners help reduce the cost of food regionally by providing advisory services and support to farmers and other members of the agricultural community on matters pertaining to agricultural development for food and nutrition security, food sovereignty and agricultural economic stability.

Traditionally, all extension services are provided by the State and each geographic division within an island has a cadre of advisory personnel for the population. This tradition is changing considerably as many other advisory services exist. Farmers and other persons interested in pursuing agricultural occupations can obtain advice from numerous other sources, including the Internet.

“Agricultural Extension must contribute to ensuring Food and Nutrition Security within the Caribbean region”, said UWI’s Dr. David Dolly, “and CAEPNet and its collaborators of other regional and international agricultural institutions intend to contribute to a rebranded agricultural extension service for the benefit of the people of the Caribbean.”

CAEPNet’s membership will include all extension leaders in the Caribbean interested in helping to meet the above objectives. Regular meetings will be held on Skype and, when possible, in face-to-face dialogue. The organisation will seek support, endorsement and recognition at the Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA) in Guyana from October 4 to 12. Already, the Global Forum of Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS), based in Switzerland, has given its support to CAEPNet. GFRAS is a new advocacy organisation which intends to expand the role of extension advisory services within agricultural innovation systems. The Technical Centre for Rural and Agricultural Corporation (CTA) has also lent support to Caribbean Agricultural Extension services.

For more information, please contact the Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension at the St. Augustine Campus, daee@sta.uwi.edu