Ties being developed with West African countries to facilitate agriculture

The Pan African Coalition of Organisations is seeking to further develop ties with West African countries, so Barbados can benefit when it comes to its agricultural pursuits.

This was revealed recently by Pan Africanist Wayne “Onkphra” Wells, who pointed out that he has been doing some work in this area, with an aim of helping boost the economy. Wells noted that through Special Envoy for Reparations and Economic Enfranchisement, Trevor Prescod, a lot of the work is also taking place, even as he gave a few details of what is likely to come.

“We have developed ties with West African countries for agriculture. So it is one of the areas we are working on, because they are interested in making Barbados the hub for processing foods and Africa has mountain loads of food, yams and cassava, these types of food” Wells revealed.

He however acknowledged, “The problem we have here, is that with the cost of the sweet potato, to turn it into flour is too expensive, so persons still end up using the wheat flour, but if we can have a consistent supply of low cost cassava, yams, sweet potatoes, it would be better, because a lot of people are getting problems with gluten and the like”.

“So again, it is facilitating that South to South relationship. That is part of the work of the Pan African Coalition, through the reparations arm, more specifically through the Envoy for Reparations Office. Those are some of the areas we are looking at exploring,  as well as facilitating cultural ties” Wells further commented.

Meanwhile, reports suggest that the prospects for deepening trade between the Caribbean and Africa are looking up. It has been noted that Caribbean countries have stepped up their attempts to diversify their export partners, particularly through promoting South-South trade. To date, among CARICOM Member States, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana, Haiti and Suriname have a diplomatic mission in at least one African country and just last year, word came that Barbados had established an embassy in Ghana. A High Commissioner to the Republic of Kenya was also announced in March this year, amongst the list of new Heads of Missions appointed, in an effort  to strengthen traditional bilateral relations and to pursue new ones. (RSM)