"A Nation Cannot Postpone Dinner" OECS Demands Urgent Action on Regional Food Sovereignty

The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Council of Ministers for Agriculture convened its Third Special Meeting on 30 September 2026 at the Ocean Coral Springs Resort in Jamaica, issuing a resounding mandate to fast track regional food security initiatives and shift decisively from political dialogue to execution. Held on the margins of the 2026 Caribbean Week of Agriculture, the high-level meeting marked the official handover of the Council of Ministers for Agriculture Chairmanship from Montserrat to Saint Kitts and Nevis, while establishing firm deadlines to eliminate the region’s agricultural implementation deficit and deepening strategic partnerships with key regional institutions.

Delivering a powerful opening address, OECS Director General Dr Didacus Jules underscored the existential necessity of food self-reliance amidst escalating global trade volatility and external economic shocks. Emphasising that food security sits at the core of national sovereignty, Dr Jules urged leaders to exercise their collective agency to protect citizens.

"A nation can defer a constitutional reform or postpone a highway. It cannot postpone dinner," declared Dr Jules.

"Food sovereignty is not romance; it is the right and the ability to decide what we grow, what we eat, and on what terms we trade. The world has accelerated faster than our implementation, and our greatest vulnerability remains the implementation deficit"

To bridge this deficit, Dr Jules outlined five strategic shifts for the OECS Food and Agriculture Systems Transformation (FAST) Strategy: transitioning from policy reviews to firm decision deadlines, leveraging collective purchasing power, building dedicated regional maritime shipping corridors, harmonising agricultural and food safety standards, and protecting core production assets like seed, soil, water and pollinators.

Outgoing Chairman, Honourable John P. Osbourne, Minister for Agriculture, Lands, Housing, Environment, Youth Affairs and Sports of Montserrat, echoed the call for speed and urged Member States to fulfill their financial and institutional obligations to the OECS Commission. Reflecting on his tenure, Minister Osbourne highlighted priorities including water resilience, climate-smart infrastructure, protected agriculture, and inter-island trade logistics enabling private-sector ferry initiatives to move both passengers and farm produce.

By addressing regulatory bottlenecks, removing trade barriers, and equipping stakeholders with modern policy-making and negotiating skills, this project establishes a sustainable pathway toward enhanced economic competitiveness and deeper regional integration.

Assuming the Chairmanship of the Council, Honourable Samal Duggins, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Marine Resources of Saint Kitts and Nevis, pledged a results driven tenure focused on eliminating intra-regional trade obstacles, expanding partnerships with Africa and South America, and positioning youth and women as primary leaders of agricultural modernisation.

"How can we continue to collectively speak of regional integration when it remains far easier for any one of us at times to import agricultural produce from outside of our region than it is to move it between our Member States?" questioned Incoming Chair Minister Duggins.

"A strategy is only as powerful as our collective commitment to that fundamental word: 'implement it.' Let this chairmanship be defined not by the number of meetings that we hold, but by the barriers that we remove, the markets that we open, and the opportunities that we create.”

The Council's push for rapid execution was strongly supported by key technical and financial development partners in attendance. Dr Muhammad Ibrahim, Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), addressed the Council, reflecting on the outcomes of the 2026 Caribbean Week of Agriculture. Dr Ibrahim outlined key strategic focus areas under IICA’s Medium-Term Strategy and Caribbean Regional Strategy including intra-regional trade expansion, the empowerment of youth and women in agriculture, and the establishment of a regional seed bank to strengthen production resilience while pledging IICA’s continued technical support to the OECS Commission and Member States.

Additionally, Mr Luther St Ville, Portfolio Manager at the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), presented on the Bank's agricultural sector operations across OECS Member States and identified opportunities to deepen financial and operational collaboration. In response, the Council suggested the establishment of a dedicated OECS Agriculture Task Force to drive the development of a pipeline of bankable agricultural projects for the region.

Among key decisions adopted at the meeting, the Council mandated a strict 30-day deadline for Member States to finalize feedback on the draft OECS Apiculture Policy to safeguard regional bee populations and ecosystems.

Ministers also endorsed ongoing progress under the 11th EDF RIGHT programme to establish an operational digital small shippers (schooner) registry, supported the rollout of an OECS agriculture and fisheries risk insurance framework, and backed expanded multi-state collaboration on sargassum management, seamoss production, and root crop value chains.