Agriculture was the backbone of Guyana’s economy for more than 200 years before independence. It carried Guyana throughout the period since independence. Not only does it employ and feed the majority of Guyanese people, it is solely responsible for Guyana being a food-secured country. Nothing has contributed more to alleviation of poverty in Guyana, and elsewhere, than agriculture. With an oil and gas boom already having an impact— contributing the bulk of foreign investment since 2015— agriculture indisputably remains an indispensable part of the economic and social trajectory of Guyana. Yet, since 2015, APNU/AFC has stupidly abandoned agriculture— the peril of which Guyana is already feeling.
One of the most egregious reasons catalysing the loss of confidence in the Government is APNU/AFC’s incompetence; their shocking disinterest and glaring neglect for agriculture. From the very beginning, in May 2015, David Granger and APNU/AFC signalled their disdain and disinterest for agriculture and for the Guyanese farmers and their families by their politically-motivated handling of GUYSUCO— the export market for rice, land leases, drainage and irrigation and removal of all agriculture subsidies— treating agriculture as a PPP thing.
Even as our attention is eagle-eyed, riveted on what the new GECOM Chair will do with preparations for elections by September 18, as the news is dominated by the constitutional crisis and Government’s consolidation of dictatorship, the neglect of agriculture is having a most deleterious impact on the economy and, more importantly, on the lives of people. Presently, Guyana is in the middle of a chicken shortage, a spike in the price for chicken, causing a slowing-down of some busy commercial centres. KFC even found it necessary to post an advisory that certain “finger-licking” menu items might not always be available because of the chicken shortage.
The Agriculture Ministry and its minister, as has become the norm since May 2015, are invisible, missing in action (MIA), as the chicken shortage begins to bite. This time, the minister might offer the excuse he has been resigned by the Constitution and the CCJ as a result of the No-Confidence Motion. But he remains a caretaker minister and the chicken shortage demands his attention. There has not been a word from him, no sign he has an interest. Although his disinterest is consistent with his behaviour over the last 52 months, it is still shocking, yet it is a reflection of the glaring disinterest of APNU/AFC in agriculture.
The Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA), to be fair, meekly displayed some interest, dismissing the problem, positing the shortage simply reflects a lowered importation of hatching eggs in the last six months. They offered no reason for the reduction in hatching eggs importation. They also ignored reports around for months of reduced hatchability of available eggs, high mortality among chicks and slow growth. While the private sector and the farmers struggle to find answers, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Government are idly on the sidelines. The private sector is looking for answers, but that does not provide the Government with an excuse to wait and see.
Other farmers are similarly facing turmoil in their brave survival struggles. This week, news filtered out that Black Bush rice farmers, cash crop farmers, and cattle farmers face a daunting future because their drainage and irrigation system (D&I) is in a deplorable state. Their livelihoods are threatened. The Water Users Associations around the country were given responsibility to administer the D&I system in their farming districts. That was done under the PPP, giving the farmers an opportunity to manage their own D&I. They collect affordable D&I charges from farmers to help in the management. But they were given a subsidy by the Agriculture Ministry through the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), to help them manage the D&I. APNU/AFC withdrew the subsidy from the Black Bush Water Users Association without an explanation. Without this subsidy, the Water Users Associations are impotent, unable to effectively manage the D&I. The farmers must now pay D&I charges hundreds of per cent above what they normally paid. For Black Bush farmers, this means disaster because they depend entirely on a closed system for effective D&I. They do not benefit from a system supported by other State entities, like GUYSUCO.
As APNU/AFC digs deeper in the bag of absurdities and excuses in order to avoid the elections originally due on March 21st and now due on September 18th, one would have thought the hapless David Granger-led APNU/AFC would have used the extra time to correct some of the missteps, miscalculations, neglect and stark stupidity they have been guilty of for the last more than four years. But, instead, they have compounded the problem, continuing on their path of recklessness, disinterest, corruption and neglect of people. Agriculture has been one of the most egregious victims deliberately politically targeted.
