INCREASING FOOD PRODUCTION

Feb 22, 2017 Editorial, Features / Columnists

Conversations about improving the production of food should be opportunities to engage everyone in society, the community and government on an important factor of national development. They should definitely not be limited to academics, technocrats or policy makers. Issues of food production are deeply rooted in concerns about the widespread impact of poverty on the lives and livelihoods of the poor and the most vulnerable. In a country with an abundance of resources, it is unfortunate that a sizeable amount of the population is poor and too many are jobless.
For decades, poverty has left many people with limited or no means of comfortably providing food on the table, educating their children or putting a shelter over their heads. Poverty continues to wreak havoc. It has increasingly placed an intolerable burden on the underprivileged
Providing adequate food for the populace has always been a complex issue for governments, past and present, and is compounded by the lack of proper policies, irresponsible and unthinking attitudes to the environment and the deteriorating state of the nation’s resources. Policies are urgently needed to improve food production, but indecision could undermine the achievement of sorely needed changes. It seems that those in authority are inherently unwilling to institute participatory governance arrangements that foster greater citizen inclusion and more effective decision-making and implementation of meaningful strategies.
This has robbed the country of access to a rich reservoir of skills, talents and creative energy which could be unleashed to help resolve problems and improve food production. Many are proactive and would not hesitate to adopt an Obama-like “yes we can” campaign slogan in pursuit of improving the production of food and thus reducing poverty across the country.
Today, the challenge is to find ways to produce more food by investing in new science, technology and innovation as well as the social infrastructure that would enable farmers to maximize their operations to benefit all of us. Concurrently, the demand for the most resource-intensive types of food must be contained; waste and excess in all areas of the food system must be minimized; and improvement in related political and economic governance must be made to increase productivity and sustainability.
The agriculture sector must make extensive use of both renewable and non-renewable resources, and use fewer pollutants, to avoid contamination of the air, land, sea and waterways. Moreover, unless the production of food is adapted to be more environmentally-friendly and climate-smart, the nation’s capacity to sustainable food production for local consumption and for export will be compromised, with grave implications for future food security as well as for potential foreign currency earnings.
It is imperative for the government to introduce all of the above measures to all sections of the food system, from production to consumption and to education, governance and research. The promotion and adoption of a sustainable food production system in Guyana should have very little impact on the environment, and should be nutritionally adequate and culturally acceptable, and affordable.
But everyone must be realistic. It will only happen with the intervention of the government and all stakeholders to promote smart food choices and a friendly environment that will lead to the desired increases. This could create an exciting opportunity for the government to recruit the brightest and best to support the farmers in a collaborative effort to demonstrate how local foods can be produced, prepared and presented in attractive, appealing, affordable and socially acceptable ways.

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