Barbados as a Small Island Developing State (SIDS) with limited resources, must seek to develop synergies between government and private sector partners if goals pertaining to food sovereignty and agricultural sustainability are to be achieved.

This was the view expressed by Chief Agricultural Officer, Barton Clarke, at a recent Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture’s (IICA) Accountability Seminar at the Savannah Hotel.

Mr. Clarke, who was speaking primarily about his Ministry’s relationship with IICA, hinted at the need to avoid “issues of turf”, which currently obtained between some government agencies, but rather to address critical issues of food sovereignty and security as “among friends”.

“We want inter and intra-cooperation. We want symbiotic relationships, we have to develop a culture of sharing information,” he stressed.

Citing mutual respect and communication as being among the primary planks for successful partnerships, the agricultural spokesman underlined that there was no magic to the process.

“Government does not have a magic wand. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development does not have one either. I know various enabling organisations like the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and IICA are not offering magic...We as national entities have certain capacities based on training and experience, the issue is how we can harness them to achieve our goals pertaining to food sovereignty and ultimately agricultural sustainability,” he said.

In terms of mechanisms to add value to each entity’s resources, Mr. Clarke singled out the need for coaching and mentoring programmes, as well as greater knowledge of each other’s operations.

“The key to partnerships is communication, communication and communication. We must get to learn each other’s systems and we must learn to listen to each other. We must also have regular meetings so that we can exchange views and come up with means of doing things better,” he advised.

From the Ministry’s perspective, Mr. Clarke pointed out that documentation was a critical part of the process.

The Ministry of Agriculture remains one of IICA’s primary partners and the two agencies work together in several areas, including agri-business, agricultural health and food safety, and the promotion of food security. (CG/