Agri-lifeline

Sep 18, 2010 Editorial

Nary has a week passed but that the Ministry of Agriculture, frequently under the aegis of the Minister himself, is seen engaged in one or more initiative to expand the “non-traditional” agricultural sector. Crop insurance, packaging, refrigerated trucks, new crops (spices, for example) foreign investors are only part of the buzz.
Last week we saw the Ministry donating $18 million worth of laboratory and field testing equipment to the Food and Drug Department of the Health Ministry. This is but one component of a wide overarching scheme to bring our agricultural products to the standards and quality demanded by the modern global marketing regime. While fundamental, success in agriculture is not all about production.
The involvement of the Ministry of Health in the drive to increase our agricultural exports signals the wider participation of all pertinent governmental departments to execute the US$22M Agriculture Diversification Programme (ADP) funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) of which the Government of Guyana will be chipping in US$1.1M.
The programme encompasses three broad “clusters” – fruits and vegetables, livestock, and aquaculture. This week the Minister was at Parika addressing the concerns of farmers and outlining the governmental initiatives in the drive to fulfil the long-declared “potential” of Guyana in food production.
At Parika itself, there was a packaging facility with refrigeration capabilities opened only two years ago. This one joined the older one at Sophia and was intended to relieve the farmers in this area (and the Essequibo Coast and islands) from the travails of further logistical hurdles as well as possible congestion at the older facility.
Farmers were reminded of the wider role that the New GMC can play in marketing as well as training farmers in the regulations and formalities that are now part and parcel of global trading.
Inevitably the talk had to turn to the disappointment of CARICOM. Regretfully, declared the Minister, “It is difficult to get this region to accept the fact that Guyana can produce and export. So every time you want to break into a market, you have to jump high, you got to jump low and you got to do all sorts of dance to get into the market.”
And this is 37 years after the formation of CARICOM, which identified from the very onset the absolute necessity for the region to reduce its mammoth food imports from outside the region. Its loftily named “Regional Transformation Programme for Agriculture (RTPA)” acknowledged the key role of Guyana, with its vast land space in the feeding of the Caribbean.
But it was never to be. Not even the interventions promoting the development of agriculture by President Jagdeo starting in 2002 and formally dubbed “The Jagdeo Initiative” in 2004 could shake CARICOM out of its recalcitrance.
In 2006, with “food security” the new buzzword following the precipitous escalation of food prices globally, there was a flurry of activities on “Strengthening Agriculture for Sustainable Development’.
Responsibilities for overcoming the identified constraints were doled out and accepted – but nothing followed.
At the 2007 Agriculture Donors Conference in Port of Spain, CARICOM Heads of State, Agriculture and Finance Ministers etc. were joined by bilateral, multilateral, and regional donors that predicted “financial and technical support for the agricultural thematic areas and the supporting projects.” Nothing concrete again followed.
In 2008, CARICOM sponsored the “Regional Agriculture Investment Forum” at the International Convention Centre. With “one-hundred and fifty stakeholders” – two heads of state, Ministers of Government of CARICOM, investors, financiers, multilateral financial institutions, commercial bankers and “other” officials in attendance, the mega-meeting was declared a “historic success”.
Twenty-five projects were identified. But nothing

Latest News

Agri-lifeline

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | December, 2nd, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

CWI’s Shallow, Bascombe circumspect amid two-tier Test system

Guyana to play Suriname, Grenada in “Nations...

Guyana Football Federation announces opening of...

West Indies unveil powerful 17-man squad for O50s...

Seven Regional Champions to vie for direct...

Kennard Memorial Turf Club expresses sincere...

Features/Columnists

The unconscionable terms of the PSA establish a case for renegotiation

Forget Begging Rich Nations: Caribbean Countries Should Act to Save Themselves

Renegotiation – the latest Guyanese curse

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

Agri-lifeline

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | December, 2nd, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]