The University of the Virgin Islands Cooperative Extension Service (UVI-CES) will host the 31st West Indies Agricultural Economics Conference. Representatives from Caribbean agricultural institutions, agricultural economists, and agriculture policymakers will meet from Sunday, Aug. 9 to Friday, Aug. 14, at the Buccaneer Hotel on St. Croix. With the theme “Mitigating Climate Change Effects to Ensure Food Security,”the group will discuss risk mitigation measures for climate change, novel extension methods for addressing climate change challenges, the economics of new varieties of crops, improved animal breeds, protected agriculture, aquaculture, effects of climate change on farm profitability, price volatility, and threats to Caribbean Food and Nutrition Security.
“It is a pleasure to host this anniversary conference on St. Croix,” said Kwame Garcia, Sr., UVI-CES state director. “It will provide an opportunity for scientists, farmers, and policymakers to share ideas and put forth solutions for addressing climate change and its impact on the tropical and subtropical agro-economic landscape.”
The Caribbean Agro-Economic Society was formally launched on April 8, 1974 at the 9th West Indies Agricultural Economics Conference in Jamaica.
Some of the objectives of the society are:
• To facilitate exchange and flow of ideas between universities, regional and government institutions, and the private sector with respect to matters related to the economics of agricultural production and related industries;
• To adopt a regional approach to the collection, collation, and analysis of agricultural data;
• To establish a closer working relationship between the public and private sectors in agricultural production.
Over the years, the conferences have attracted a wide range of participants, including policymakers, economists, researchers, agricultural economists, teachers, extension educators, farmers, and other social scientists. Delegates have come from the member countries - Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Puerto Rico, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, U. S. Virgin Islands, Africa, the United States, Latin America and Europe.
These conferences have helped to influence agricultural policy throughout the region and have attracted the support of international and Caribbean institutions such as: The Ford Foundation, the British Overseas Development Agency, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, the Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute, the CARICOM Secretariat, the International Development Research Centre, Ministries of Governments, and other public sector agencies and private sector organizations throughout the region.
The 31st West Indies Agricultural Economics Conference is hosted by the Caribbean Agro-Economic Society, the University of the West Indies Department of Agricultural Economics, the University of the Virgin Islands Cooperative Extension Service and Agricultural Experiment Station, the V.I. Department of Agriculture, the V.I. Department of Tourism, and the Caribbean Food Crops Society – V.I. Chapter. Conference registration and hotel information are available at http://ces-register.uvi.edu. For more information, please visit the conference website at: http://www.caestt.com/ or contact Kwame Garcia Sr. at (340) 692-4093 or kgarcia@uvi.edu.