After agriculture declined under APNU/AFC: Hughes now wants to rename Ministry as “Food Security Ministry”

Leader and Presidential Candidate of the Alliance For Change (AFC) Nigel Hughes says if his party is elected into Government, he will rename the Agriculture Ministry to the Ministry of Food Security.
Hughes made this disclosure during a news conference on Friday as he outlined his party’s plans for the agriculture industry.
Among other things, the AFC says it will provide subsidies or free transportation of produce from farms to market. The party said it will also establish seed banks in every Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) and indigenous community, develop microloan centres for food-related ventures, and build dehydration chambers.
Hughes also revealed that the AFC will develop cassava processing facilities in indigenous communities and ensure more schools are involved in agriculture.
However, there are already several cassava processing facilities in Guyana. These are Mainstay/Whyaka, Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam); the cassava processing facility in Parika, Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara); Tiger Pond Cassava Processing Facility, Region Nine (Upper Takatu-Upper Essequibo); the White Water and Kumaka agro-processing facilities; and Tapakuma Cassava Processing Facility. Meanwhile, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) valued at US$10 million was signed for the establishment of a state-of-the-art cassava processing plant in Guyana. The agreement, inked on the side-lines of the Guyana Energy Conference and Supply Chain Expo 2024, formalises a partnership between Kumasi and Globaltec Dessarrollos e Ingenieria SA, a Madrid-based company. The initiative is being spearheaded by a Guyanese-born attorney-at-law and her husband, in collaboration with the international firm.

Abysmal track record
The AFC’s track record in the agriculture industry has been abysmal. The AFC was in Government between 2015 and 2020, along with its coalition partner, the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU). During that period, critics say the agriculture sector was virtually dead.
During his presentation to the 2025 budget debates earlier this year, Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha had remarked that the APNU and AFC politicians “should be the last persons to speak on agriculture. They destroyed the agriculture sector in this country.”
During that presentation, the Minister had pointed out that under the former administration, sugar production declined by 60 per cent from 231,071 tonnes in 2015 to 92,256 tonnes in 2019. He was reminded of the increase in prices for land through the Mahaica Mahaicony Abary/Agricultural Development Association (MMA/ADA) and the loss of the Panama rice market.
After four years in Government, he said the PPP/C has transformed the sector so that Guyana can take its rightful place in regional food security.
“A new era has dawned now from 2020, an era where Guyana’s credibility has been restored to the world, an era where Guyana is making its contribution to the world in terms of energy, in terms of food security and in terms of climate change. We are leading in those areas, and we are being recognised around the world”. the Minister had expressed.
Highlighting some of the achievements in the agriculture sector under the PPP, Mustapha said the production of brackish water shrimp increased from 10,000 kilograms (kg) monthly to 120,000kg to earn $1.8 billion for the aquaculture industry.
He noted that the industry has also commenced producing prawns and started the marine cage culture in aquafarming.
“When we talk about the marine cage culture, many of them said that those technologies cannot come to this part of the world, that those things can only happen in Asia…. We brought it here; we did the pilot test at Mashabo, Mainstay and Capoey. It was successful, and we are in the process of installing another 50 cages in different interior locations,” he explained.
Aside from aquaculture, the Ministry is building a hatchery and a feed mill, increasing the production of corn and soya, increasing livestock by 24 per cent, commissioning a swine abattoir, and making many other investments.