‘Caribbean Week of Agriculture 2023 will be hosted on October 9th – 13th in The Bahamas at the Breezes Resort and Spa, Nassau  under the theme ‘Accelerating Vision 25 by 2025.’ 

History 

The Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA) was conceptualized by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) as a facility to place agriculture and rural life on the “front burner” of regional integration activities and in doing so enable: 

• the key decision-makers in the public and private sectors to better acknowledge the importance of agriculture and rural life to the economic, social and environmental stability of the region; and 
• for the major stakeholders in agriculture and related sectors to have an opportunity to dialogue and forge a common vision for the repositioning of agriculture and the enhancement of rural life. 

The CWA is the premier event on the Agriculture calendar in the Caribbean Region.  It is convened under the aegis of the Alliance for Sustainable Development of Agriculture and the Rural Milieu (‘The Alliance’).  From the inaugural meeting in 1998, the two main collaborating agencies were IICA and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat. 

In 2002, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) joined IICA and CARICOM to establish a core group which functions as the Secretariat of The Alliance. Since then, the four agencies have collaborated on the management and logistics necessary for the convening and servicing of meetings of The Alliance as well as the myriad of activities during the CWA. 

In 2003, the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) became a major partner and sponsor of the CWA activities. 

To date, there have been 16 successful editions of the CWA.’ The first CWA was held in Trinidad and Tobago in 1999. The last edition, in the year 2021 was held virtually. (Please see Caribbean Week of Agriculture through the Years for entire list of hosts)