ALTHOUGH Heads of Caricom states gathered on Friday at the second Agri Investment Forum and Expo, at the National Academy of Performing Arts, Port of Spain, to focus on the very serious issue of food security, the event still had several moments of levity.

One came in the form of an exchange between Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley and TT's Prime Minister as she called on people to begin planting peas in Tobago.

'Not even a bassman in our head should stop us from planting peas in Tobago,' she said to loud applause, in obvious reference to Shadow's classic calypso Bassman.

She urged people to begin planting short-term crops and raising fast-growing livestock, and to begin eating what is grown in the region, not only because of the financial implications, but because of health as well.

She also called for a regional calorie counter for local and regional dishes.

'How much calories are going to be in the roti you going to serve me later Keith?' Mottley asked.

'How much calories are there in breadfruit? How much calories are there in the ingredients in the corn soup?'

But Dr Rowley, in his address, responded to Mottley's call to plant peas citing his personal woes in planting the crop.

'You go and plant peas in Tobago and see what happens to you,' he said.

'I planted peas in Tobago. Cocrico ate all. And if I touched a cocrico is straight to jail I going, because it is a protected species.

'They used to live in the forest and would come down from the forest and were considered a delicacy. But from the time they heard they were a protected species, they came out. They would be in the yard fighting fowl.

'From my peas farm, they ate everything. As soon as it began to flower they would eat.

'When we spoke about reducing the population, you heard the screams of the environmentalists that we couldn't touch the national bird. In Tobago, we call it the national pest.'

Caricom leaders: be part of the solution

Caricom leaders called for all relevant stakeholders to get on board with the regional push to reduce its billion dollar food import bill by 25 per cent, by the year 2025.

Rowley and Mottley, as well as Guyana President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali and Surinam President Chandrikapersad Santokhi, echoed similar sentiments - that in order for the region to sustain itself, in the face of shocks and changes in the world, the region must once again learn to feed itself.

'We have the confluence of three global crises,' Mottley said.

'We are at war with climate, we are at war with pandemics - not just covid19 but the anti-microbial resistance pandemic, and we are at war with inflation as a result of being at war with war.'

Mottley said that the region's plans can not only be medium term as the region's population is already feeling the negative consequences of climate change, war, disease and inflation. She said the region has fed itself before and can do it again.

'None of us can avoid the reality that our people must eat. There are things that we can do and that we hav