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Agri. Minister elected to serve as Vice Chairman at FAO Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean
Kaieteur News – Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha was recently elected to serve as Vice Chairman of the 37th session of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean.
The conference which is currently being held in Quito, Ecuador, from March 28 to April 1, 2022 will pave the way for member countries to define the regional priorities and to adapt and localise the FAO Strategic Framework 2022-2031 to the conditions of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha
While speaking on the FAO’s Science and Innovation Strategy, Minister Mustapha maintained that there needs to be more measures in place regionally to actively involve youths in agriculture.
Minister Mustapha also noted that it is critical for policymakers to take urgent and immediate action to preserve the agriculture sector in the region and across the globe.
According to the Minister, “As a body, and as countries in the region that are addressing hunger and trying to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, we have to ensure that we take action that will preserve this very, very important sector. And when we talk about agricultural research, challenges and opportunities, in Guyana we have been trying to ensure that we implement measures so that we can try to be very innovative. When you look around the region, I think this is a general fact. When you look around the region you find mostly middle-aged and senior citizens are involved in agriculture. Let us ask ourselves ‘what are we doing to involve our young people in the agriculture sector?’”
He then noted what Guyana has done so far to give young people the opportunity to get involved in agriculture.
“…in Guyana, we would have done an analysis which revealed that the majority of graduates from the University of Guyana and the Guyana School of Agriculture have office jobs rather than doing practical work. To address this, President Dr. Mohamad Irfaan Ali recently launched a programme that targets these young people, bringing them into the agriculture sector to do practical work. Referred to as the Agriculture and Innovation Entrepreneurship Programme, it paves the way for construction of hundreds of shade houses for the cultivation of high-value crops like broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots,” explained the Agriculture Minister.
Mustapha said these are the opportunities that will ensure young people are at the heart and core of solutions geared towards addressing food security for the country and at the same time reduce the food import bill of the region.
During the regional conference, member states will also analyse the work done by FAO in the previous two years in the region and agree on recommendations for initiatives and priorities that will guide the organisation’s work during the 2022-2023 period.
In addition, delegates will present and discuss outstanding innovations that countries are implementing.
Kaieteur News understands that the coming days are reserved for a series of ministerial meetings during which members will exchange their experiences as well as innovative projects that are underway in order to show how the region is overcoming the challenge of transforming agri-food systems.
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