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Ruminating
DEAR EDITOR,
I was most instructed by a presentation caught partly on TV recently, which reported on a workshop that appeared to have been coordinated by the Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA) on the topic of the development of small ruminants, i.e. sheep and goats.
One reason I reacted at first hearing was the mention of the Agency IICA – Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture.
I could not help but recall working with this organisation some years ago, both in a project which examined the potential for agro-tourism in the Caribbean and Suriname; and in the joint conduct of a regional workshop which focused on the development of swine.
The outputs may have been lost in the passage of time.
It was nevertheless heartening to learn of the vitality of the GLDA, whose establishment was the outcome of an IDB-funded consultancy project in which I participated with others. We have always since wondered about the efficacy of the GLDA, aware as we all were of the manner in which recommendations of the consultancy were misimplemented.
Notwithstanding, snippets shown of the various presentations (including PowerPoint) made a good impression. So also did the feedback from respective group rapporteurs. With my professional cap I kept wondering about the follow-through action that will be taken. Would there emerge a cohesive plan for say, the next five years, with specific targets for the institution and farmers respectively to achieve?
One wondered about the capacity to deliver the support services that would be needed across the country.
There were tentative references to percentages of farmers big and small; but this listener could not detect explicit reference to hard numbers – of either farmers or animals and where located.
The latter is a reflection which has haunted me ever since the extended consultancy project some five years ago.
The Unit of the Ministry of Agriculture which has since transitioned into the GLDA, either could not, or would not, provide necessary statistics about the respective populations of animals and farmers and their locations on a map of Guyana. It was therefore puzzling, how in the absence of such coherent information it was possible to design a work plan and activity programmes to which required skills could be assigned, in order to achieve relevant objectives – at costs to be budgeted.
Coming to the end of the recent exercise so well publicised, one could only hope that it represented part of a deliberate plan for the development of small ruminants so much discussed.
E. B. John
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