Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in Guyana for a three-day state visit, on Wednesday proposed during the second Caricom-India summit that his country share its advances with the Caribbean region, such as nanotechnology and other modern practices, in order to boost the region’s climate smart agriculture.
The summit was held at the Marriott Hotel on Wednesday, with Indian Prime Minister Modi, among other dignitaries, in attendance.
In his address during the opening ceremony of the summit, Prime Minister Modi outlined areas in which India would like to collaborate with the Caribbean, including in the area of agriculture. Modi spoke of how India has transformed its own agriculture sector and noted India’s readiness to share these transformative advances with the region. These advances range from nano-fertilizers, to transforming sargassum seaweed into fertilizers using modern technology.
“We are focusing on nano-fertilizers and on natural farming as well. In order to improve food security, we are promoting millets. On India’s initiative, the UN declared the year 2023 as the International Year of Millets. Millets are a super food that can grow in any kind of climate. For Caricom countries as well, this can become an effective means of addressing climate change and also improving food security,” Modi said.
When it comes to renewable energy and climate change, Modi noted that India has started a number of initiatives such as the International Solar Alliance, the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure and the Global Bio-Fuel Alliance. He even proposed an alliance with CARICOM, in space technology, which can also aid the agriculture sector.
“I am pleased that you have joined the International Solar Alliance. I would like to request you to join the other initiatives as well. We are investing in a big way, in the area of renewable energy. We propose that we can help make at least one government building solar powered, in each of the Caricom countries.”
“India is among the leading countries in space technology. By leveraging space technology, we can work together in areas such as resource mapping, climate studies and agriculture in Caricom countries,” the Indian Prime Minister said.
India also plans to launch its own satellite for environment and climate observation by 2027, which was first announced in September 2023 at the G20 summit. According to Modi, data collected from this satellite will be shared with all countries, in particular countries in the region.
Another area of proposed collaboration was in direct payments and cloud-based solutions. He Gave examples of countries like UAE, Singapore, Sri Lanka, France, Nepal and Mauritius, which are now connected to the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
“It is my suggestion that we work together for its adoption by Caricom countries as well. For the common man to be able to store all documents carefully, we have made the cloud based digi-locker platform. We can start this as a pilot project in Caricom countries as well,” he also said.
Caribbean Community (Caricom) Chairman, Grenada Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell was full of anticipation in what a partnership between the region and India can do, especially for the agriculture sector.
“Looking forward, we envision a future where Caricom-India relations continue to flourish and expand. Closer collaboration and cooperation amongst the leaders of CARICOM member states and India would serve to further enhance the partnerships and contribute to successfully strengthening our existing economic, commercial and people-to-people relations,” Mitchell said.
“We remain convinced more than ever that closer linkages between CARICOM and our trusted partner, India, are part of the very necessary medication and intervention needed by the Caribbean Community and its citizens to overcome our existing developmental challenges,” he added.
Help from India in the area of agriculture will go a long way towards the region accomplishing the ‘25 by 2025’ goal that was first conceptualized by President Ali and aims for the Caribbean to achieve a 25 per cent reduction in the Region’s food import bill by the year 2025.
Owing to the Region’s dependency on imported foods, it faces hardships when disruptions occur. And in light of this, the intention is to formulate a sense of food stability and security. As of February, this year, 70 per cent of the ’25 by 2025’ target had been met.
