CA$10M project launched to push climate-smart, gender-responsive agriculture in C’bean

Guyana is among the first set of countries in the Caribbean that will benefit from the CAD$10 million project aimed at promoting climate-smart and gender-responsive agriculture sectors.
Farmers and other stakeholders in the agriculture sector on Wednesday gathered at the Regency Suites Hotel in Georgetown as the Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with the Canadian Government and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) launched the ambitious project.

The CA$10 million project will target eight countries in the Caribbean including Guyana and is aimed at promoting gender-responsive and climate-smart agriculture.
To kickstart the project, a workshop was hosted following the opening ceremony in Guyana.
Speaking at the opening of the workshop was the Head of Development Cooperation at the Canadian High Commission in Guyana, Adam Loyer who spoke about Hurricane Beryl and as such, highlighted the importance of resilient agri-food systems.
“In the aftermath of hurricane Beryl It would be remiss of me not to recognise the significant damage observed to agriculture and food security and livelihoods of many farmers across the region. We support CARICOM’S ambitions to increase the resilience of their food systems to disasters and other shocks by augmenting domestic food production through climate-smart agricultural practices and reduced dependency on food imports.”

He further highlighted that the project underscores Canada’s commitment to empowering women and youths in the agriculture sector.
“For Canada, this project represents an important commitment in line with our feminist international assistance policy. The active engagement of women and youth associations since the launch of this project is notable. We are optimistic that today’s workshop will yield constructive ideas to set a solid foundation, a solid foundation for the project in order to deliver on important results for women and youth farmers in Guyana and in the wider Caribbean.”
Additionally, he stated that the new project also complements other agricultural initiatives supported by Canada such as the CAD$90 million Canadian four-year Sustainable Agriculture in the Caribbean project, which is implemented by World University Services of Canada.
The project will be carried out by the FAO of the United Nations in Belize, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Suriname.

Meanwhile, also speaking at the opening of the conference was Guyana’s FAO representative Dr. Gillian Smith who reiterated that Guyana is the first country in the Caribbean to begin work under the Regional Gender-Responsive Climate-Smart Agriculture and Food Systems in the Caribbean project.
As such she emphasised the importance of partnerships in light of the country’s rapid economic growth.
“Guyana is one of the first countries to kick off this work with this inception meeting. In FAO, we’ve been working together with the Government of Guyana, the people, and many different entities and agencies within Guyana to work towards Guyana’s development agenda in food systems and agriculture. Guyana is moving at such a rapid pace that there is no way to do this work without partnerships. We must work together. We must work together because we save time and energy, we don’t replicate the things, replicate things that don’t need to be replicated, we ensure that we leave no gaps, and we follow the lead of what the country’s development agenda is.”
Additionally, the Director of Planning at Guyana’s Ministry of Agriculture, Natasha Deonarine expressed gratitude to Canada for funding the CAD$10 initiative and to the FAO for providing technical support for the execution of the project.
Moreover, Guyana aquaculture’s industry development has been described as a potential economic powerhouse the director stated “The government is willing to collaborate with investors in order to capture 25 per cent of the U.S. four-billion-dollar aquaculture market. “In this regard she revealed that the Ministry of Agriculture has identified the fisheries and aquaculture industry to be the main focus of this project. Additionally, to further bolster gender equality the government policy mandates that 35 per cent participation of young people and women be enlisted in all agriculture projects.