§ 92. Sir Michael ShawTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what his Department has been doing to encourage agricultural diversification in the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries.
§ Mr. Chris PattenIn the Pacific, we are helping the islands diversify away from coconuts, for example, in Vanuatu, with the Commonwealth Development Corporation, by supporting cocoa and coffee projects and livestock and forestry programmes; in the Solomon Islands by supporting forestry and spice development; and in the smaller atoll islands by providing expertise to increase self-sufficiency in meat and vegetables.
In the Caribbean, we are supporting a range of activities to help countries diversify away from sugar and bananas into other tropical fruit, coffee, spices and annual food crops, for example, yams.
Agricultural diversification is less important in Africa than in the Caribbean and Pacific as there are fewer countries dependent on single export crops. Our assistance focuses on developing food crops, agro-industries and commodity exports.