NASSAU, BAHAMAS — One year after signing an agreement to establish a digital territorial village, The Ministry of Agriculture, Marine Resources and Family Island Affairs (MOAMRFIA) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) moved towards the implementation phase of the project recently.
The occasion was marked during a launch event for farmers and other agriculture stakeholders in Eleuthera on February 7.
The Digital Village forms part of the MOAMRFIA and FAO’s joint national priority to build the capacity of the government to create an enabling environment for digital agriculture solutions and scale innovations for farmers.
Addressing the farmers at the event, FAO Representative in Jamaica, The Bahamas and Belize, Crispim Moreira urged them to embrace the changes from the Digital Village Initiative.
“This is an opportunity to integrate your traditional knowledge and use the technology as a vehicle to improve on what exists. To be clear, no technology can replace, the rich local and traditional knowledge that farmers have relied on for decades. What it will do is enhance and improve the practices and techniques for you to reap more benefits, and of course more profits from your efforts.”
The project will work with the private sector to identify, implement and adapt digital agriculture solutions along targeted value chains identified by the ministry.
Stemming from this collaboration, a major expected output will be the creation of Territorial Digital Centers, which will be supported by public-private partnerships.
The digital centers will be set up within a cluster of rural communities and will also be designed to offer a full complement of services towards a robust digital ecosystem.
The centers are expected to be a hub for a digital consulting service, a rural and agricultural e-commerce platform and a digital financial service. The digital hubs are intended to strengthen rural-urban linkages and drive the transformation of a more sustainable agri-food system and an innovative agribusiness sector.
Moreira asserted that “rural agricultural development is on the rise”. The FAO representative further mentioned some economic benefits of the increased connectivity to rural areas.
“We are embarking on an economic, social and cultural revolution. This digital ecosystem will build bridges from the local to the global. A perfect example of this is the project’s ecommerce platform that will connect farmers to more markets and opportunities to sell produce at fair prices”.
Minister of Agriculture, Marine Resources and Family Island Affairs Clay Sweeting said he is excited about the project.
“For a long time, I have been speaking about technology and how it can really help to boost our national food systems. We are so happy that many Bahamians are open to trying new innovations that will benefit our country,” he said. “Eleuthera is a great place to start and we look forward to duplicating the programme in several other Family Islands.”
At the national level, an Agribusiness Policy and legislative framework will be developed to advance the growth of the agriculture and fisheries sector with particular emphasis on agro-technology. The collaboration between national stakeholders, led by the Ministry will also produce a strategy for digital agriculture extension services that will target 30 extension officers to be trained in service delivery.
