Keeping the nation alive and fed

Sep 07, 2008 Features / Columnists

---

The push is on for the nation to grow more food and in many communities people have risen to the challenge because they know the importance and at the same time they are beginning to hurt in the pocket. Scarcely across the globe has a day gone by without the people complaining of how impossible it is to acquire the same volume of goods with the same amount of cash that they did some three months ago.
Even foods grown in Guyana are costing more because the imported inputs have gone up and because the markets outside Guyana have signaled an indication to pay even more than they are accustomed to. Since people live in the real world, all the talk of nationalism would not allow the farmers to sell their produce for less when they know that they could get more.
One cannot blame the government for this because from the time Guyana entered into an agreement with the International Financial Institutions it undertook, as one of the conditions, to allow the free enterprise system to operate and to set the prices. Before that the government spent a lot of money on subsidies and the funding agency argued that if the government needed money that badly then it could not take other people’s money, on loan, and in turn lend or give it to its people.
This saw an end to price controls long before the current administration came into being and encouraged local producers, importers, distributors and retailers to determine what the final price of the goods would be. Guyana and many other countries’ experiment with price control have been disastrous leading to shortages, hoarding and black marketing. At that time the general view was that competition would eventually cause the prices to stabilize.
Many did not bargain for the meetings of the importers and in some cases the distributors and even the retailers to agree on what the final price should be. Very few, if any, sold below the agreed price and some for even more than agreed. The government could not intervene except to advice shoppers to walk around for the best possible price.
Today, with the foreign producers calling for more money for their goods, the situation in Guyana has been affected. But there is a new challenge and it is here people would have a right to blame the government if the situation is not nipped in the bud. Smugglers are emerging once more and they could hurt the country and its people.
Rice, the staple of Guyana, already costs more to the consumer than it did a few months ago. There are adequate supplies and in normal times one would have expected the price to remain stable but some of the aforementioned factors and now smuggling, are beginning to take a toll.
If smuggling is allowed to continue unchecked then shortages, real and artificial, would be present in Guyana. Needless to say, the cry would be to blame the government because once a situation goes bad then everyone raises that cry. The relevant agencies need to step up the fight and bring smugglers to justice who is snatching our food supplies for a few dollars.
It is with this in mind that the Agriculture Minister has vowed that no stone would be left unturned to ensure that there are adequate supplies for the people of this country. He has also gone further to ensure that other foods are in adequate supplies by distributing planting material across the country.
Recently, farmers began to complain that they have to pay too much for fertilizers and weedicides. They want the government to ensure that supplies reach them at a more affordable price. But these very farmers are the ones who are going to be chasing after the higher prices and there is nothing wrong in this. Already some of these things are zero-rated, in any case. Across the world there is a shortage of fertilizer, which is causing prices to increase and because Guyana imports all its fertilizer there is little or if anything anyone can do about the price of fertilizer and other agro-chemicals.

Indeed, government is doing its utmost to protect the people from rising prices and it is spending money to help farmers acquire additional planting material and equipment, technical assistance and the availability of arable land so that they could produce more.
Hence, Guyana has been able to escape the harshness of the rising food prices because traditionally it was a food producer sufficient in basic food items and the region’s only exporter of agricultural produce. However, it has not been immune from the rising prices and this has not escaped the notice of the government. But from the reaction of some people one would believe that they have been left to their own devices.
Situations changed and people eased back on their cultivation. Today, we have seen an increase in production due to the efforts of the Grow More Food Campaign. However, there are still some elements who are seeking to blame the government instead of taking situation into their own hands and helping their individual cause.

---

---