The Re­gion­al Con­sul­ta­tion Meet­ing of Cen­tre for Agri­cul­ture and Bio­sciences In­ter­na­tion­al (CABI) mem­ber coun­tries in the Amer­i­c­as and the Caribbean be­gan yes­ter­day with an open­ing cer­e­mo­ny at the Hilton Trinidad and Con­fer­ence Cen­tre.

The three-day meet­ing, held un­der the theme “Work­ing in part­ner­ship for a safe and sus­tain­able fu­ture,” brings to­geth­er rep­re­sen­ta­tives of CABI Mem­ber Coun­tries, re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­i­sa­tions, gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials, re­searchers, and stake­hold­ers.

The con­sul­ta­tion will fo­cus on agri­cul­ture chal­lenges in­clud­ing pest and dis­ease man­age­ment, in­va­sive species, food safe­ty, pes­ti­cide risk re­duc­tion, and sus­tain­able agri­cul­tur­al prac­tices. It al­so seeks to strength­en part­ner­ships and iden­ti­fy so­lu­tions to pro­tect liveli­hoods, ecosys­tems, and re­gion­al food sys­tems.

In wel­come re­marks, Sen­a­tor the Ho­n­ourable Ravi Rati­ram, Min­is­ter of Agri­cul­ture, Land and Fish­eries, said the Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go is tak­ing steps to strength­en food safe­ty and sus­tain­abil­i­ty. He an­nounced that the Min­istry’s Re­search Di­vi­sion will soon in­tro­duce Max­i­mum Residue Lim­it test­ing with new equip­ment for pes­ti­cide residue analy­sis. He added that the Min­istry, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with CABI, has adopt­ed the bio-pes­ti­cide No­vacrid for lo­cust con­trol.

Dr. Daniel El­ger, Chief Ex­ec­u­tive Of­fi­cer of CABI, al­so ad­dressed the meet­ing, not­ing the im­por­tance of col­lab­o­ra­tion and sci­ence-based ap­proach­es to sup­port food and nu­tri­tion se­cu­ri­ty.

The meet­ing will in­clude tech­ni­cal ses­sions, pan­el dis­cus­sions, and coun­try re­ports, and will con­clude with a field vis­it to the Nar­i­va Swamp. Out­comes will guide re­gion­al ac­tion and in­form CABI’s work with Mem­ber Coun­tries.