‘Explicit mention needs to be made of a financial mechanism that targets small farming communities and Indigenous People’ – Min. Mustapha tells FAO Regional Conference

(Department of Public Information Press Release) During day two of the 37th session of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean in Quito, Ecuador, Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha stated that financial mechanisms that target small farming communities and Indigenous People need to be in place.

While commenting on the FAO’s new strategy on climate change, Minister Mustapha indicated that these mechanisms should be able to make resources readily and equally available for smart, small adaptive, and uniformed research given the effects climate change continues to have, especially on those groups mentioned above.

“We would like to see a reference of a financial mechanism that makes resources readily and equally available for smart, small adaptive, and unformed research targeting small farming communities and indigenous people. And today, when the world is being faced with the serious problem of climate change, we have seen the devastation in some countries. I think we have come to a point where we have to make a decision on what is necessary for us to move forward,” Minister Mustapha said.

These remarks came in support of comments made by St. Vincent & the Grenadines’ Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries, Rural Transformation, Industry & Labour, Saboto Caesar who also maintained that more time, money, and efforts must be allocated toward developing a climate change strategy for the Small Island Developing States (SIDs) in the region, particularly the importance of the blue and green economies.

Read more at: Department of Public Information

Source: CARICOM TODAY