Featured Remarks by Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Marine Resources St. Kitts, Hon Samal Duggins, at the 19th Caribbean Week of Agriculture 2025(CWA2025) Virtual Launch Ceremony on Tuesday, 15 July 2025

Basseterre, Saint Kitts, July 15, 2025 (MOA):

It is my distinct honour and privilege to welcome you all to the virtual launch of the 19th Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA), which will be hosted this year in the beautiful Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis from September 29th to October 3, 2025, at the St. Kitts Marriott Hotel.

This year’s theme, “Sowing Change, Harvesting Resilience: Transforming Our Caribbean Food Systems for 2025 and Beyond,” is both timely and profound. It reflects not only the urgency of our times but the unwavering resolve of our region to forge a path toward a sustainable, secure, and self-reliant future.

The Caribbean’s agricultural sector stands today at a defining crossroads. The impacts of climate change, global pandemics, geopolitical conflicts, and persistent supply chain disruptions have laid bare the vulnerabilities in our food systems. We face not only the physical threat of more intense hurricanes, droughts, and floods but also logistical challenges—from high shipping costs to unreliable inter-island transport—which hinders our ability to move goods efficiently across our own region.

These challenges, however, have also illuminated our resilience. They have revealed the creativity and determination of our farmers, fishers, scientists, policymakers, and entrepreneurs. They have underscored our capacity to adapt, to innovate, and to build systems that are not merely reactive but proactive and sustainable.

Now is the time for us to sow the seeds of true transformation. We must craft deliberate policies, invest in climate-smart agriculture and innovative technologies, empower our youth and women, and commit ourselves anew to the cause of food and nutrition security and sovereignty.

If we act decisively—and together—what we shall harvest is not only resilience in our fields and seas, but economic stability, social equity, and a healthier future for our people.

As the host nation, St. Kitts and Nevis is honoured to provide the stage where regional partnerships will deepen, new knowledge will be shared, and the spirit of innovation will flourish. Throughout CWA 2025, participants can look forward to engaging forums, technical workshops, dynamic youth dialogues, business-to-business networking, and insightful field visits showcasing our advancements in agro-processing, sustainable farming, and the emerging green economy.

But let us remember: CWA is more than a week of activities—it is a clarion call.

• A call to reimagine how we produce, process, and protect our food.

• A call to mobilize investment—not only financial capital, but human talent and intellectual resources—to drive rural development, climate adaptation, and economic growth.

• A call to amplify the voices of women, youth, farmers, and fishers who are the backbone and the future of Caribbean agriculture.

• And critically, a call to strengthen intra-regional linkages so that the food we consume is grown, processed, and packaged right here in our Caribbean basin, reducing our dependence on volatile global markets and overcoming the transportation and supply chain barriers that too often divide us.

We must also continue to recognize and support the outstanding work being done by regional pioneers in climate change awareness and response, for example, innovative platforms like the C-SAC initiative advanced by Steve Maximay. It is essential that our young people become actively engaged in such transformative efforts, ensuring that they are not merely beneficiaries of change but key drivers of it.

We are deeply grateful to our regional and international partners—CARICOM, IICA, FAO, CARDI, the OECS Commission, and our many development allies—for your steadfast commitment and invaluable contributions to this journey of transformation.

Let me close by affirming that St. Kitts and Nevis is committed not merely as hosts but as active partners in advancing our shared vision of a resilient, productive, and inclusive agricultural future. We eagerly look forward to welcoming you in person this September, where together, we will not only discuss change—but actively sow it.

Let us rise to this challenge, united as one Caribbean family, determined to harvest a resilient and prosperous future for generations yet to come.

Thank you and may CWA 2025 be the most impactful Caribbean Week of Agriculture in our region’s history.