About Us
MISSION
The mission of CAEPNet is to facilitate knowledge sharing and capacity building of agriculture and rural advisory service providers and to foster an enabling policy and investment environment,contributing to sustainable rural development in the Caribbean. The provision of space for knowledge sharing and capacity building creates an environment that fosters leadership, knowledge and skill to mobilize Caribbean regional communities and policy makers. This will result in vibrant, innovative rural advisory services and systems that contribute more actively to the optimization of the livelihoods of farmers, their families and other persons living in or depending on the rural milieu for quality and standard of living.
VISION
The vision of CAEPNet is to have Extension and Rural Advisory Services effectively contributing to sustainable agricultural and rural development in the Caribbean through vibrant innovation systems.
OBJECTIVES
i) To mobilize, organise and build the capacities of public/private RAS providers (RASPs) to deliver effective, innovative services- linked to all actors in AIS - to smallholder farmers; and
ii) To generate and contribute knowledge needed to promote scaling up of climate-resilient good practices to smallholder farmers and for promoting favourable policies and investments in RAS
Grenada Country Forum
LAST MILE PROJECT
The Last Mile Project purposed to bringing agricultural service providers together, Strategically collaborating with and providing adequate assistance to the country forum having similar goals of providing a platform for stakeholders to work together. These stakeholders include farmers, the private & public sector, non-governmental organizations and community based organizations. The overarching vision of CAEPnet is to provide extension and rural advisory services that effectively contributes to sustainable agricultural and rural development in the Caribbean through vibrant innovation systems. Its mission is to facilitate knowledge sharing and capacity building of agriculture and rural advisory service providers and to foster an enabling policy and investment environment, contributing to sustainable
rural development in the Caribbean.
CAEPNet’s CHAIR MESSAGE
Building Capacity of Extensionists in the Caribbean
2020 has been a year of history in the agricultural sector. It brought to the Car-ibbean the Corona Virus pandemic, which changed the way extension advisory services provided support to farmers and stakeholders in the region and globally. Like many other regions, the Caribbean has been grap-pling with becoming food secure as the population increases, food shortages, food prices increase, and the perennial threats of nat-ural disasters that cause high losses to the agricultur-al sector. COVID-19 restrictions forced extension profes-sionals to 'up' their capaci-ties and find innovative means to support and stay in contact with farmers and other stakeholders. The use of digital tools such as the Zoom, mobile phones, and other internet-ready gadg-ets provided the platform for virtual extension (e-extension) programmes among extensionists and farmers in many Caribbean countries. The Caribbean Agriculture Extension Providers' Net-work (CAEPNet) has been providing professional de-velopment opportunities over the last two years virtu-ally to extension officers in the region with the support of the Faculty of Food and Agriculture, The University of the West Indies, St Au-gustine; University of Flori-da – IFAS Extension; and the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS). The Introduction to the New Extensionist pro-gramme has held interest not only from exten-sionists and farmers, but in-clude specialists from communi-cations, value chain and other disciplines. The train-ing modules included:
• Extension Approaches and Tools;
• Adult Learning for Be-havioural Change;
• Basic Knowledge Man-agement and Exten-sion;
• Agricultural Extension Programme Management;
• Professional Ethics
• The Role of Extension in Value Chains
• Agricultural Entrepreneurship
• Gender in Extension and Advisory Services
• Risk Management and Adaption in Extension and Ad-visory Services As we proceed in the new normal, let us continue to ex-plore strategically the use of virtual extension (e-extension) programmes delivery to expand our reach to farmers and provide regional professional development opportunities.
Administratively, CAEPNet submitted a $10,000 USD pro-posal to GFRAS for a Network Capacity Building Grant to support an individual in an administrative role for 2021. Dr Jeanelle Joseph and Dr. Tessa Barry shared those duties for several years. Under the grant, Dr. Joseph will commit 15 hours per week to CAEPNet's activities.
Dr. Joseph’s administrative duties include:
Updating CAEPNet's Fundraising Plan and lead on identifi-cation and application of funding.
Work with Advocacy Working Group Chair to re-introduce CAEPNet to Ministry of Agriculture officials in each country in the region and explore opportunities for partnerships/funding.
Work with Knowledge
Management Working Group to col-lect content from membership for the newsletter and to post to CAEPNet website and social media pages.
Work with CAEPNet Professionalization of Extension Working Group to coordinate activities pertaining to virtual and in-person training and the annual Extension Officer of Excellence award.
Secretarial support – monitor CAEPNet email account and respond to correspondences, schedule meetings, take minutes, update membership contact lists, help with re-ports, and other duties as assigned.
Many thanks to the network's members for their continuous support and contribution to our extension and farmer's ca-pacity building, together we can shape the new normal in extension advisory services in the region.
OUR TEAM
Our Dedicated Team
THEME
Bridging the Gap of Rural Advisory Services Providers
CARIBBEAN AGRICULTURAL EXTENSIONS PROVIDER'S NETWORK (CAEPNET)
The vision of CAEPNet is to have Extension and Rural Advisory Services effectively contributing to sustainable agricultural and rural development in the Caribbean through vibrant innovation systems.
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