Small Scale Farming is the Answer to feeding the world

Oct 18, 2015 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

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On October 16, World Food Day was observed. The theme for this year’s observances was ‘Social Protection and Agriculture’. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN), the choice of topic aims to highlight the role social protection plays in reducing chronic food insecurity and poverty by ensuring direct access to food, or the means to buy food. Social protection is, moreover, a viable alternative for stimulating agriculture. In this context, the role played by farmers is crucial. Farmers are the key actors in the fight against hunger and finding the concrete remedies to address food security and nutrition.
A recent report, published by the Commission on Trade and Development, states that ‘small scale farming is the answer to feeding the World’.  FAO has stated that agricultural production must increase by 60 percent globally to meet the food demands that will be required to feed the 9.2 billion people, who will inhabit our planet in 2050. In order to guarantee this result it will be essential to ensure that farmers, especially small rural and hinterland farmers have access to infrastructure, credit and functioning markets.  Small farmers also need to have access to science and technology, innovation and knowledge, which are essential for the development of the agricultural sector. Guyana must be packaged as a serious agricultural player.
A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) is on record advocating for the support of small–scale farmers and the creation of strong local food systems, nationally. It is our belief that a fundamental consideration for the future success of our agricultural sector must be the effectiveness of the decision-making structure from the highest level and its consequential vertical impact.
We must work to create, in Guyana a flexible broad-based, integrated and environmentally sensitive agricultural sector that will meet the demands of the domestic, regional and international markets. We must create sustainable enterprises through the application of cost-effective management of traditional and modern technologies, in order to increase the volume and quality of diversified agricultural produce. We must establish programmes for technical and financial support; improved land tenure arrangements; meaningfully involve our young men and women in the sector; and disseminate knowledge and skills to farmers and other organisations and individuals through efficient extension services.
Cash crop farmers have been leaving the land because of poor drainage. Intensive and urgent action must be taken to rehabilitate/expand as necessary, current drainage and irrigation deficiencies, especially the Demerara and Potaro rivers, but including the Mahaica and Abary rivers and the Lama Conservancy management.
The hinterland regions of Guyana (Regions 1, 7, 8, 9, 10) cover 76.62 percent of the country’s land mass. The population, mostly indigenous people, is about 113,000, 15 percent of the population. Our vision is for all hinterland communities to be food secure. A food security policy for the hinterland will also result in savings in transportation costs for staples in many hinterland households thus reducing the cost of living.
Traditionally, the nine indigenous peoples of Guyana met their food needs through subsistence agriculture, hunting and fishing.  However, with the upsurge in mining and, to a lesser extent, logging contiguous to many of their communities, these traditional food sources have been severely compromised by environmental degradation and habitat loss. To compound matters, young men especially have been leaving their villages for more lucrative jobs in mining and forestry. The result has been an increase in hinterland poverty, especially in villages and communities distant from Regional centres. This trend must be reversed by building and sustaining a vibrant and region-specific agricultural sector.
Over the next five years, government policy will promote environmentally sensitive food production systems based on agricultural diversification, water management and efficient land use along with the establishment of well-resourced extension services to facilitate technology adaption, especially by small farmers.
New agro-industries must emerge. Traditional beef cattle rearing must be placed on a scientific footing to take advantage of the international demand for ‘organic’ beef, while the nascent sheep and goat rearing enterprises will be strengthened to address the dietary animal protein needs in villages, in the first instance, as flocks are built up to meet local and Caricom demands for sheep and goat meat.
The Intermediate savannahs, Upper Demerara and Berbice Regions, long touted as the ‘next frontier for agricultural development’, can effectively be used for integrated industrial crop and livestock production and agro-processing. The focus must be on the production of substantial portions of the local and regional food needs. Small farmers must be encouraged and given incentives to return to the land. Regional Agricultural Institutes must be built. A modern Agricultural Research and Development Institute must be a priority. This will not only have regional, but also a national remit to address the production concerns of small and medium scale operators, who do not have the resources to conduct their own on-farm research and technological innovations.
With its bountiful waterways, rich arable  lands and favourable environmental conditions, Guyana can produce quality, safe food that will be in urgent demand in the coming years, to feed an ever growing World population.

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