Caribbean Week of Agriculture: President Ali urges transformation of regional food systems to ensure food security

… says Guyana will open more lands for intra-regional investment in agriculture

While delivering the keynote address at the virtual opening of the Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA), Guyana’s President Dr Irfaan Ali called for the transformation of the regional food systems in an effort to ensure food security in the Caribbean.
The virtual CWA event, which runs from October 4–8, is being held under the theme “Transforming Our Food Systems”, and as Lead Head of Government with the responsibility for Agriculture in the Caricom Quasi Cabinet, the Guyanese delivered the keynote address.

President Dr Irfaan Ali

He noted that the significance of the CWA should not be lost, since it represents the renewed energy and enthusiasm of the countries in reassuring that agriculture remains of paramount importance to the Caribbean’s fortunes and future.
Guyana, as you know, holds lead responsibility for agriculture, agricultural diversification and food security in the Caribbean Community (Caricom). The President said his Government does not take this responsibility lightly, and has demonstrated the willingness and commitment from the very outset to lead from the front.
He added that Guyana has begun to provide that leadership through the policies it is adopting locally.
“At the national level, Guyana is committed to the sustainable and equitable transformation of its food systems. Our efforts to do so are rooted in our commitment to the 2030 agenda and the obligation to leave no one behind. We’re dedicated to ensuring that there is access to safe and nutritious food for everyone, the reduction of on-farm and post-harvest waste and loss, and implementation of a circular food economy,” President Ali noted.
As part of the commitment to providing safe and nutritious food for all Guyanese, the President explained that they have taken steps to consolidate the national school feeding programme by strengthening connections between consumers and food producers, including by fostering more robust food value chains and creating solid alliances between farmers and the wider society to deliver safe, healthy and nutritious school meals.
He added that Guyana is expanding agricultural production and productivity through increased investment in large scale agricultural production and the provision of incentives to boost investment in the sector.
“Guyana is strengthening its agricultural institutions so as to provide greater support to the sector. We’re also improving our agricultural support through infrastructure, including drainage and irrigation and farm-to-market access roads.
As a matter of fact, investment in this infrastructure is of priority in the transformative agenda of the country. Guyana is de- risking its agricultural sector. Guyana is diversifying and modernising local agriculture so as to create a more resilient sector. Guyana will promote increased research and development and innovation in agriculture, and pursue climate smart agriculture,” the Guyanese Head of State told his Caribbean counterparts.
President Ali further outlined that Guyana will be intensifying increased value added through agro-processing and working on the adoption of an inclusive approach to the management of its agriculture sector.

Transformational approach
The Guyanese Leader, after outlining all the plans for the local sector, told his regional colleagues that it is not a move to paint a picture of Guyana being better than the rest; rather, his intention is to highlight elements of a replicable model for transforming regional food systems.
With a food import bill of just about US$5 billion, the Caribbean, according to President Ali, has the resources to slash that bill. He explained that the Caribbean must become more food secure, and Guyana is committed to sustainable and equitable transformation of its food systems.
“It remains a travesty that our region, blessed with arable lands, abundant fresh water supplies and skilled agricultural workers, imports more than five billion US dollars annually. We have the means to slash our regional food import bill, produce more of the food we consume, and the process generates sustainable livelihoods through agriculture. The Caribbean also must become more and more food secure, since climate change can imperil global food supply, subjecting the region to external induced shocks,” he said.
Based on estimations, the global population is expected to rise by 1.4 billion in the next two decades, and that will require more food. Ali related that in order to address the anticipated high demand for food, the region must reassess and reform its food systems to seize the opportunities.
“Food security also is essential to attainment of many of the Sustainable Development Goals. If the region is to avoid being deterred from attaining the SDGs, it must transform food systems to ensure greater food security. There should therefore be no reservations about the need for transforming our regional food systems,” he urged.
In February of 2021, President Ali presented a paper titled “Advancing the Caricom agri-food systems’ agenda – prioritizing regional food and nutrition security” to Caricom Heads of Government, and it birthed the Special Ministerial Task Force on Food Production and Food Security, headed by Guyanese Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha.

Ali, in his address, said the theme of the CAW observance falls in line with the main objective of the Task Force, which is to provide guidance on the transformation of the agri-food system to ensure resilience, the creation of opportunities for agricultural investment, and guarantees of food and nutrition security.
Staying true to the theme, President Ali noted that the transformation of the regional food systems must involve the regional private sector. He added that the Caricom Private Sector Organisation has been working with the Special Ministerial Taskforce on Food Production and Food Security on the identification of specific areas for regional policy support in targeting investments of intra-regional trade.
President Ali explained that while the Caribbean has a means of securing greater self-sufficiency, more needs to be done in ensuring in particular that the wheels of intra-regional trade are not encumbered. This, he noted, can be achieved through the removal of non-tariff barriers which impede regional trade in agriculture produce and products.
“Within the Caribbean Community, Guyana will aggressively press for the dismantling of barriers that restrain interregional trade. We are going to be bullish on this issue. I know that there are vested interests who wish to retain these barriers, but the choice facing us is clear: if there is to be greater regional food security, these barriers have to be dismantled.
“The promotion of regional initiatives aimed at eliminating non-tariff barriers to trade are among the critical areas being addressed by the Special Ministerial Taskforce. To support this process, a sanitary and phytosanitary dispute resolution mechanism has been refined for adoption in the community,” he explained.

More lands
Acknowledging that access to adequate and suitable land remains a critical constraint, President Ali informed that his government will be opening more lands to regional investors.
“Guyana, being resource-rich land with freshwater, is desirous of leading in this area by making available appropriate lands as part of the process of promoting cross-border investment in agriculture. Guyana is embarking on a process of consolidating on use and underutilised lands with the aim of making suitable lands more readily available for supporting large-scale agricultural investments,” he said.

He added that transforming regional food systems must also result in more climate resilient agriculture, since the Caribbean is particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change and natural hazards. With the Caribbean being the second most hazard-prone region in the world, Ali said, climate resilient agriculture is the only way to ensure food security.
“It is therefore imperative that attention is given to building climate resilience in order to transform the region’s agri-food system. Given agriculture’s extreme reliance on favourable climatic conditions, there is now an even stronger need for appropriately tailored and accessible risk transfer financial services,” Ali said.