Caricom imports more than US billion of food from outside Caricom, including sugar, rice, meat, milk, eggs, dairy products, vegetables, fruits, fish, beverages and other foods. We import potato, carrots, broccoli and other cash crop products. We spend more than US0 million importing corn and soya for poultry stock feed. The ugly truth is that Caricom is not food secure and our leaders have BLOVIATED more than they have acted to address the food security challenge.
There is an ugly competition in the APNU/AFC and President Granger seems determined not to allow Moses Nagamootoo and others in his Government to bloviate more than him. For instance, he prognosticates that Guyana will be a green economy by 2025, but APNU/AFC has blocked hydro-electricity without which Guyana cannot meaningfully reduce dependency on fossil fuels, one of the main impediments to a totally green economy. He disavows the judicial death penalty, but approves it for 14 new offences in the anti-money laundering law. His rhetoric conflicts with the actions of his Government daily.
Granger this week spoke of Guyana being key to Caricom’s food security challenge. As Minister of Agriculture, I spoke of Guyana’s capacity to provide for Caricom’s food security and, therefore, would agree with Granger. But Guyana cannot fulfil this potential without developing a strong agriculture sector. The truth is that APNU/AFC under Granger has considerably weakened the agriculture sector and we are rapidly reversing all the gains Guyana made in the last 20 years in advancing agriculture and improving Guyana’s and Caricom’s food security.
Even as Granger was bloviating about food security in Caricom, APNU/AFC was seeking to downgrade the importance of Guyana’s sugar industry. After a good start in the first crop of 2015, GuySuCo only reached a reduced 2015 target and the first crop of 2016 was 43 per cent below target. The second crop is likely to be one of the worst ever. The most noteworthy actions of APNU/AFC in the sugar industry so far have been denying sugar workers a wage increase and a fair Annual Production Incentive for 2015 and closing Wales and LBI sugar estates.
At the same time, APNU/AFC has created conditions for the downward trajectory of rice. Rice production for the second crop of 2015 was lower than the first crop and notice no one is talking anymore about rice production in 2016. The truth is production has dropped dramatically and rice production in 2016 is likely to be the lowest in a decade. In fact, the acreage under rice is the lowest it has been for the last decade. In addition, farmers are receiving the lowest prices for a bag of paddy than they are accustomed to in almost two decades.
The importation of rice and sugar into most of Caricom is an important part of the food security and economic challenges in virtually the whole of Caricom. Guyana is the one country that can meet its entire demand for rice and sugar and is in a position to help Caricom reduce or eliminate its dependency on sugar and rice importation from outside Caricom. If we are serious about Guyana helping Caricom meet its food security needs, we must start with sugar and rice, which represent a market for more than US0 million. Not only will Guyana be able to support food security in Caricom, but it will catalyse its own economy.
But rice and sugar represent symptoms of a downgraded sector. APNU/AFC provides little or no support for the agriculture sector. Region Five, by far the largest contributor to agriculture GDP in Guyana, has endured months of flooding and APNU/AFC was too busy with Jubilee and other matters to pay any attention. Granger, Nagamootoo and other Ministers have visited other countries more than they have visited Region Five and APNU/AFC has provided zero support and compensation to farmers. Right now poultry farmers are suffering from a disease that is killing large numbers of their flocks. After weeks of ignoring the farmers, and after massive losses in poultry production, the Ministry of Agriculture, under public pressure, has only now sought to find out why poultry are dying.
The truth is APNU/AFC has deliberately neglected agriculture. It sees agriculture as a PPP thing and it has decided to downgrade agriculture and place its hopes almost entirely on oil. But oil has not solved development problems in Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Nigeria and other countries. Without agriculture, food security is not possible and without food security, oil will not prove the panacea Granger and APNU/AFC are hoping for. For sure without agriculture, Guyana and Caricom have a serious food security threat and no amount of bloviating will bring relief. (Send comments to [email protected])
