PetroCaribe alliance tackles the food crisis

Aug 31, 2008 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
As part of the effort to promote regional food security, Ministers of Agriculture of the 18-member PetroCaribe alliance met in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on 30 July to discuss urgent issues affecting food production in their respective countries.

Two weeks before, at the fifth extraordinary PetroCaribe summit in Maracaibo, Venezuela, heads of delegations had expressed grave concerns over the escalating prices of agricultural inputs, especially urea, a bi-product of the petroleum industry.

To alleviate this situation, President Hugo Chavez then proposed a Venezuelan offer of 100,000 metric tones of this commodity annually to PetroCaribe countries with a 40 percent discount at market price.

Chavez, at the same time, also announced the creation of a Petroalimentos (Petro-Food) Fund, expected to accumulate more than US$500 million annually through a donation by Venezuela of US$0.50 from each barrel of crude oil sold at more than US$100 to non-Petro-Caribe member-states.

All of these initiatives, no doubt, will help revitalise the agricultural sectors of member countries seeking to boost their agricultural production and offset the current high prices for food products.

Honduran President Manuel Zelaya then suggested the holding of an emergency meeting of Agriculture Ministers in his country to assess each country’s fertiliser requirements and develop areas of cooperation to improve agricultural production.

Another purpose of this Honduras ministerial was to establish an organisational structure for the Petroalimentos Fund while addressing the issues of rural development through the implementation of various projects.

The overall aim would be to assist member countries in ensuring food security with the overall objective of improving the quality of life within the region.

Attending the meeting were representatives from Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname and Venezuela. Delegations from Bolivia, Costa Rica and Ecuador participated as observers.

In opening remarks, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya stressed that the PetroCaribe alliance was trying to deal with the current crisis because “the most vulnerable countries are the most affected.”

He noted that the crisis has been mainly caused by the gap between demand and supply and by market speculation.

He revealed, too, that his country would submit projects on irrigation, agriculture research, agricultural supplies, fertilisers and improved seed production, machinery and production equipment, drying and storage, lab installation and rural funding.

Other countries are currently in the process of submitting project proposals. So far, St. Kitts has submitted three, namely, the establishment of a fruit and vegetable packing house, irrigation development for crop farmers, and small ruminants’ development.

And even before the Honduras meeting, Guyana presented a request for the purchase of a substantial quantity of fertilisers under the special discount concessions announced by Venezuela.

In the ensuing discussions, the participants also agreed to identify funding for innovative farming projects that seek to promote sustainable food production, distribution and exchange under principles of equity and co-operation.

In addition, the delegates decided to promote national public investments and cooperation alliances among the member countries in the areas of agricultural knowledge and science and technology.

Emphasis will be placed on crop and cattle systems, fishing industries, improvement of irrigation systems in areas affected by recurrent drought, and the development of ecological systems, taking into consideration the impact brought about by climate change.

Significantly, the meeting set up a Council of Agriculture Ministers headed by Venezuela’s Agriculture and Land Minister, Elias Milano.

He will lead an eight-member technical executive committee to gather the proposals by the various member states and administer the Petroalimentos Fund.

On this committee, the Central American region is represented by Honduras and Nicaragua; the Caribbean islands by Jamaica, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Cuba and the Dominican Republic; and South America by Venezuela and Suriname. (Guyana and Suriname subsequently agreed to share this responsibility).

This executive committee subsequently met in Havana on 11-12 August where they examined a list of projects submitted so far by member countries.

And with regard to fertilisers, each country will submit its needs and the secretariat will be tasked with acquiring this commodity for the region, instead of each country attempting to procure supplies on its own.

The Havana meeting also finalised the terms of reference of how the Petroalimentos Fund will be administered in terms of the criteria, the focus, promoting local production, consumption and trade between member countries and ensuring that it does not conflict with other institutions like CARICOM.

But the highlight of these deliberations was the release of US$40 million accumulated so far from the Petroalimentos Fund for use by 18 member-states.

In the short term, approximately US$2 million will be allocated to each of the 18 countries for specific areas of food production and productivity, such as machinery, fertilisers, planting materials and feeds, training and any other critical areas to support emergency food initiatives.

These decisions on the administrative terms of the Fund will have to be ratified by the respective countries, and a follow-up ministerial is proposed for September in Honduras for the official signing of the agreement related to the allocation for each country.
Odeen Ishmael, Guyana’s Ambassador to Venezuela