Companies, communities and citizens can cooperate

Nov 05, 2017 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

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(Address of His Excellency Brigadier David Granger President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana to the 30th Anniversary Celebration of Amazon Caribbean Guyana Limited on October 29, 2017)

The Barima-Waini Region – a lovely and luxuriant area of 20,339 km2 that makes it a little smaller than Israel – is a place of great promise. The Region’s abundant freshwater sources, fertile soils and warm climate make it suitable for agricultural development.
The Barima-Waini Region has the potential to become a powerhouse of agricultural production. This Region can help to make this country and much of the Eastern Caribbean food secure even as the country reduces its reliance on the traditional sugar industry.
The Region is intensifying the development of agriculture and agro-processing. The opening of a processing facility for turmeric at Hosororo on the 8th October this year is evidence of this thrust. The celebration of the 30th anniversary Amazon Caribbean Guyana Limited (AMCAR), a company which pioneered the development of the ‘heart of palm’ industry thirty years ago, is further evidence of this thrust.
The company created an industry. It has begotten a ‘model’ which has transformed a previously overlooked commodity into an industrial product and a remote area into an agro-processing centre. The ‘model’ emphasises the importance of hygiene, marketing, quality assurance, phyto-sanitary and sanitary standards and regularity. The industry’s strict adherence to these standards and the certification of its products, have allowed local products access to European supermarkets and restaurants.
The ‘AMCAR model’, backed by thirty years of experience, has been tried and tested. Investment in agro-processing has been shown to have the potential to create upstream demand and produce downstream exports.
This country’s food products can enhance their presence in the kitchens and dining tables of the Caribbean and Europe. This country, in order to do this, must diversify agricultural production and expand output. This country must move production up the value chain, through agro-processing, particularly in non-traditional products from the hinterland.
The AMCAR ‘model’ is a most appropriate vehicle to achieve this by bringing company, community and citizens together in a partnership that involves capital by the company; land allocated by the State and labour by the communities and citizens. This ‘model’ has:
– stimulated job-creation for harvesters and those employed in the factories; it empowered citizens and communities; promoted innovation and technology transfer; it added value to primary production, thereby promoting increased production through higher farm incomes and reduced crop losses; it extended diversification into other crops such as mangoes, papaws, pineapples and watermelons;

– supported the livelihoods of more than 1,000 persons from various communities and provided an assured market for farmers and harvesters; it is export-oriented, allowing for local production to penetrate international markets;

– spawned the transfer of technologies, especially in the areas of agro-processing, marketing and quality assurance; it entrenched adherence to international standards and the certification of these standards, which in turn allowed for export-market penetration.

Hinterland agriculture is integral to the establishment of a resilient and robust agricultural sector. More than 80 per cent of this country’s agriculture takes place on our coastland which, owing to its susceptibility to the adverse effects of climate change – droughts, floods and weather extremes – have inflicted losses and increased costs on agriculture on the coastland.
Hinterland agriculture can foster a more resilient and robust economic sector. It can do so by encouraging food production; by promoting more resilient and higher-yielding crop varieties; by diversifying production into non-traditional crops; and by stimulating agro-processing to reduce crop losses and increase farm incomes.
Hinterland agriculture will enhance the standards of living of hinterland residents and their communities through enterprise and employment. Hinterland agriculture can help to reduce the outward migration of young, working-age persons. Hinterland agriculture can boost national production and promote diversification. It can improve the resilience and robustness of the sector.
The Government’s thrust in extending local democracy is also expanding the economy. The establishment of capital towns at Mabaruma for the Barima-Waini Region, at Bartica for the Cuyuni-Mazaruni Region and at Lethem for the Rupununi Region and the strengthening of regional administration have started to pay economic dividends.
This is evident in the conduct of Regional Agricultural and Commercial Exhibitions (RACE) which act as catalysts for food-processing. RACE events at Anna Regina, Bath Settlement, Lethem, Linden and Rose Hall and next month at Lusignan, have the potential to promote production at the ‘cottage’ and community levels and to generate regional pride by naming products such as ‘Rupununi essence.’
Spices are being produced and processed in this region. Sun-dried tomatoes are being produced in the Potaro-Siparuni Region. The Rupununi Region is increasing its production of cashew and peanuts. Regional agro-economies are growing everywhere.
Innovation, through agro-processing, also is fundamental to creating a more resilient agricultural sector. Agro-processing will increase farm incomes by making products from food, some of which would otherwise have been lost to spoilage. Agro-processing adds value to food production. Agro-processing encourages production, enhances food security and promotes the agriculture industrialisation. The transfer of technologies, by companies from technologically-advanced countries, can accelerate agro-processing at the industrial, community and household levels.
This country looks forward therefore to continued investment in agriculture and agro-processing by utilising a ‘model’ which involves a partnership between companies, communities and citizens. This ‘model’ has the potential to transform the economic development of hinterland communities, empower communities, enrich citizens and ensure local, national and regional food security.

The observance of the thirtieth anniversary of Amazon Caribbean Guyana Limited, therefore, is significant to the economy of this country and the communities of this Region.
I applaud its commitment to boosting local food processing and its support for agriculture and agro-processing. I support the company’s efforts at diversifying its production line. I wish the company continued success in the future.

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