February 9th, 2010…. Deputy Director of Agriculture, Jedidiah Maxime will be in Barbados, this Thursday representing Antigua & Barbuda at the Caribbean Agro-meteorological Initiative (CAMI), stakeholders Meeting.

This, initiative, which will be officially launched during the one –day session, Thursday, is a three year project funded by the African, Caribbean and pacific Group of States (ACP), Science and Technology Programme.

The Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology is partnering with the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and the Meteorological Services of the ten Caribbean Countries.

They are Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Trinidad & Tobago.

According to CAMI, the project, is expected to assist farming communities in the region through the provision of information via the regional network of meteorological and Agricultural Services and Research Institutes on predictors of the rainy season potential and development of effective pest and disease forecasting systems for improved on –farm management decisions, preparation of wide diffusion of a user friendly weather and climate information, newsletter and organization of forum with the farming community and agricultural extension agencies to promote a better understanding of the applications of weather and climate information to farming and to obtain feedback to provide products from the meteorological services for use by the farming community.

Stakeholders spanning the meteorological services, agriculture ministries and members of the farming communities will be in attendance.

This meeting will also seek to introduce, CAMI, to those institutions that are not official partners in the project, but, are not recognized as key stakeholders and discuss the benefits and way forward over the next three years.