NASSAU, The Bahamas – Food and Agriculture Organisation Representative for The Bahamas, Jerome Thomas is on an official visit to ensure that this country taps into resources available for food production and security.
His week-long visit started on Monday, November 22, 2010, with Courtesy Calls on v Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration the Hon. Brent Symonette; and the Minister of Agriculture and Marine Resources the Hon. Larry Cartwright.
Mr. Thomas is the FAO Representative for Jamaica, Belize and The Bahamas and his job is to ensure that each country, starting at the school levels, know what the organisation is about and the resources available to each country.
Bi-annually, the FAO provides a Technical Cooperation Programme Facility (TCPF) of $200,000 to each country in various projects, geared toward improving its needs in agriculture and related areas. Mr. Symonette acknowledged that there is need for such assistance and that efforts will be made to see where such resources could be used.
The 192-member Food and Agriculture Organisation is a United Nations agency, which leads international efforts to defeat hunger in developed and developing countries. Assistance is offered in modernising and improving agriculture, forestry and fisheries practices and to ensure good nutrition for all.
Since its establishment in 1945, the FAO has focused attention on developing rural areas, which is 70 percent of the world’s poor and hungry people. Mr. Thomas’s visit also included Courtesy Calls on His Excellency Sir Arthur Foulkes, Governor-General; The Rt Hon Hubert Ingraham, Prime Minister; the Hon Desmond Bannister, Minister of Education; Representatives of the Pan-American Health Organisation/World Health Organisation; the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture. He also visited sites as directed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources.
By Lindsay Thompson
Bahamas Information Services
