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Hurricane Beryl causes major setback to CARICOM’s plans to reduce food import bill – Pres. Ali
Kaieteur News – President Irfaan Ali, during a live statement on Sunday, said that Hurricane Beryl has caused a major set-back for the Region’s plan to reduce its food import bill by 25% by 2025.
President of Guyana, Hon. Mohamed Irfaan Ali
In 2022, the heads of Government of CARICOM committed to reducing the Region’s large food import bill by 25% by 2025. The Guyanese president is tasked with the responsibility of agriculture and food security in CARICOM and is spearheading the initiative.
The goal is to be achieved through the implementation of the CARICOM Agri-Food Systems Strategy, which prioritizes the production of crops and products that are imported heavily in the Region.
Beryl, an eventual category five hurricane, made landfall on Grenada’s Carriacou Island and has since moved through several islands in the Region, causing severe damage along its path, particularly to the agricultural infrastructure.
The hurricane has severely impacted the islands of Grenada, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, St. Lucia, Jamaica, Barbados and according to Ali, those countries were all showing great improvement in their agricultural sectors and were on target to achieve the 25% by 2025 goal.
“[The initial assessment] is heart wrenching because of the tremendous investment, the tremendous policy commitment and budget support that was placed in the agricultural sector since 2020, investment in infrastructure, water system, technology, crop variety, farm support, farm-to-market infrastructure,” Ali said before adding “many of these countries would have lost all of this investment,”
Ali underscored too, that “not only is the initial investment or cost of damage concerning to him as lead head on agriculture, but also the long term investment cost to rebuild the infrastructure and to find resources, to recapitalize the farmers”
Despite the setback, Ali related that measures will be taken to assist the affected islands. Some of the plans include mobilizing regional resources to assist governments and farmers in rebuilding their respective agricultural sectors.
“There are some thoughts and some initial ideas that I’ve already shared with some colleagues and also the chair of the Ministerial Task Force for agriculture to see how we can quickly mobilize the necessary stakeholders and resources to address this tremendous setback that our 25% by 2025 action plan has been hit with by Beryl,” he explained.
The Guyanese president also plans to contact several international bodies for assistance to handle the issues Beryl has posed to food security and the agricultural industry in the Region.
“I’m also deeply concerned and will be making the necessary calls in relation to FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), ECA (European Commission of Agriculture), and other institutions … To help our farmers and to work with the region, because for sure, there are some changes in the methodology and changes in the approach to food production that we’ll have to take into consideration in this build-back phase,” Ali said.
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