Agriculture Focus

Dec 16, 2011 Editorial

One of the most intriguing ministerial appointments made by President Ramotar was that of Dr Leslie Ramsammy to Agriculture. While we would not question Dr Ramsammy’s obvious intelligence, the learning curve he has to ascend will certainly pose challenges both to him and the sector. It is very heartening that he has thought it prudent to assemble a Think Tank to assist him in running this most strategic sector.
Guyana is uniquely poised to take advantage of the global imperative for secure food supplies and in doing so, to significantly improve the living standards of our people. We have an abundance of land, water and most importantly, people who have not abandoned the land as in so many other countries. Agriculture remains the largest segment of our economy but unfortunately, we have not been able to transcend the constraints that have hobbled its full flowering.
But providentially, there is a strategic plan already drafted and debated – almost for a decade – that the Think Tank on agriculture might do well to examine immediately. This is, “The Jagdeo Initiative”, launched by the ex-President when he had the lead responsibility for agriculture in CARICOM. The Initiative sought to suggest a strategy for developing the region’s agriculture potential. But what was said about the regional underdevelopment of agriculture is also applicable to Guyana. We believe agriculture can make quantum leaps if, unlike the moribund actors in CARICOM, we apply the insights of the initiative to our Guyanese milieu.
The initiative identifies several critical elements that must be confronted if agriculture is to deliver its potential to our economy. “These key elements are: agriculture is a business; agriculture is holistic, spanning the entire agri-product chain and with organic links to other productive sectors; the increasing importance of value-added food products and non-food products must be recognised; emphasis on national activities with sub-regional and regional activities included when they add value to national initiatives”.
Most importantly, ten constraints to agricultural development were identified. These were: limited financing and inadequate levels of new investments; outdated and inefficient Agricultural Health and Food Safety (AHFS) systems; inadequate research and development; a fragmented and disorganised private sector; weak land and water distribution and management systems; deficient and uncoordinated risk management measures; inadequate transportation systems, particularly for perishables; weak and non-Integrated information and intelligence systems; inadequate marketing arrangement and lack of skilled and quality human resources.
We suggest that by the end of this month, the new Minister convenes a meeting of all key stakeholders that operate in the agricultural sector within Guyana so as to apply the Initiative to our specific opportunities and needs. Take for example the observation that “agriculture is a business”. Most of our farmers have holdings that are five acres and less and operate their farms very inefficiently. Farmer organisations, along the lines of the RPA, ought to be resuscitated to bring their constituents up to speed on how to run their operations “as a business”.
The attention the Minister has promised to the Skeldon Sugar factory will secure the co-generation of cheap, clean and reliable electrical power. Rather than pumping it into the national grid, maybe it ought to be confined to agro-processing industries that can be encouraged to start up in Berbice. Spoilage of perishables is the bane of most agricultural produce and canning and/or flash freezing of the latter are only two of the operations that can be facilitated.
Unlike what most people believe, Guyana does not have a finance problem: we have an intermediation problem. Because of excess liquidity, the Bank of Guyana is “sterilising” some G$60 billion of funds from commercial banks in the form of Treasury Bills. Surely, at the national conference on agriculture, plans and projects from entrepreneurs and farmers can be matched to bankers – with the Government overseeing the intermediation of the necessary funding.
But just as with the original initiative for CARICOM, there should be a lead person to deal with each identified constraint. Maybe some of these persons can be selected from the opposition to ensure a national effort in this area.

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