ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, March 09 2015, CNS – The Caribbean will be one of six regions to receive special focus from the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) in 2015.
The CTA said although it will continue to focus on its three strategic priorities – policies, value chains and knowledge management, in addition to youth and women’s empowerment – how it approaches achieving these goals will change slightly.
From 2015, CTA will adopt a regional focus, with the introduction of regional business plans (RBP) tailored to the particular needs of the six ACP regions: West Africa, Central Africa, Eastern Africa, Southern Africa, Caribbean and Pacific. These support regional efforts to increase agricultural productivity, build efficient agricultural value chains and markets and promote climate-smart agriculture. While these challenges are common to all ACP regions, they need to be addressed according to each region’s particular constraints and opportunities.
“While many of the issues confronting agriculture are similar across regions, and will continue to be the focus of the Centre’s all-ACP flagship programmes, there are also significant differences between regions,” said CTA Director Michael Hailu.
“To address these differences, CTA is organising much of its work programme through three-year revolving RBPs for each of the six ACP regions. This focuses the Centre’s operations on region-specific priorities and will help deliver targeted outcomes.”
The CTA is a joint international institution of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and the European Union (EU).
CTA’s goal is to contribute to enhanced agricultural and rural development policies and inclusive value chains that promote food and nutrition security, prosperity and sustainable management of natural resources across Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP).
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