Caricom HoG Meeting: Guyana’s food security leadership praised by Caricom Chair

…says states mobilising resources to tackle food security challenges

By Jarryl Bryan

Guyana’s leadership on agriculture in the region has come in for high praise from new Caribbean Community (Caricom) Chairman, Dominican Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit. So much progress has been made that, according to Skerrit, Caricom states are mobilizing resources even now to tackle food security challenges.
At a closing press conference on Wednesday evening, PM Skerrit gave an update on all the discussions Caricom leaders have had over the course of the two-day Heads of Government conference. Those discussions included strategies for accelerating the push towards slashing the regional food import bill by “25 per cent by 2025.”

“Coming out of our respective countries, there’s a heightened interest on the part of farmers for investments in agriculture, and so there are some concrete plans. We are mobilizing the resources, both financial and technical,” Skerrit has said.
“There are agreements being signed among ourselves. There’s sharing of knowledge, expertise and resources. It is truly a united front, in seeking to improve and increase the quality and production of agriculture products in the community,” Skerrit added.

He has emphasized, however, that at the end of the day, Caricom must eat what it produces. This includes local stores making the conscious decision to prioritize stocking their shelves with local goods and goods produced within the region, as opposed to imported goods.

“The power really is not in the hands of the Government. The power of reducing the food import bill is in the hands of the people, the consumers of the Caribbean. The supermarkets will sell, and we buy. For the ladies, we can say that, with regards to the eyelashes, you will see a major importation of eyelashes in the Caribbean because we’re buying it,” Skerrit said.
“And if we can buy the agricultural produce and demand the agricultural produce, then the supermarkets and the restaurants will sell to you what you want to buy. And all of the acrylic nails and so forth, when we go to the supermarkets, let us demand the items from Guyana, or Trinidad, or Barbados, or St. Lucia, and you will see how quickly we can reduce the import bill.”

August retreat
PM Skerrit went on to reveal that a retreat is planned for August 2023 in Dominica, during which regional Heads of Government will do follow ups on the commitments given during the conference. These follow ups would include addressing trade barriers, which was raised by President Dr. Irfaan Ali during a plenary session on Tuesday, and the matter of Haiti’s security woes.
“You have issues of trade barriers. The President of Guyana, in his presentation on food and nutritional security, highlighted the need for us to address the issue of trade barriers. The issue of governance within the Caribbean Community. The issue of security,” Skerrit further explained.
President Ali, as the Lead Head of Government for agriculture in Caricom, also provided further clarity on some of the bottlenecks affecting food security that were addressed during the meeting. He assured, however, that these are being resolved.
“There are some structural problems, some institutional problems, that we are resolving. Take, for example, the issue of poultry. From 2020 to now, there are three key inputs in terms of feed production: rice, corn and soya. You had a 100 per cent increase in the cost of rice as an import, and between 65 and 55 per cent increase in corn and soya. As a region, our forward planning capacity in terms of storage for corn, rice and soya, we can only store 20 per cent of what we require. So, when there’s a glut on the market and the price, we cannot make use of that because there’s no storage capacity,” President Ali said.
According to the President, regional heads are looking to partner with the Private Sector to address this issue, and already, progress has been seen in some countries. He further assured that, as a region, they are well on track to achieving their original target, and the agricultural agenda has been revitalized in all Caricom countries.
President Ali had made a presentation on Tuesday at the plenary session of the 45th Conference of Caricom Heads of Government in Port of Spain. The presentation was themed “Advancing the Caricom Agri-Food System Agenda – Prioritizing Regional Food and Nutrition Security”. Also provided was an update on the progress made towards regional food security.
Among the accomplishments is the cultivation of 1284 acres of corn, which were cultivated for the 1st crop, and 1000 acres of soya bean, which were all planted in the first quarter of 2023. Additionally, Guyana constructed 25 shade houses during the first quarter, and a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) was developed between Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago.

Free movement
Meanwhile, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley provided an update on discussions regarding the free movement of skills. Under the revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, certain categories of skills are guaranteed the right of free movement among Caricom states. According to Mottley, however, they are working on making travel by citizens of member states even more free.
“The heads have agreed that we are moving beyond just the free movement of skills to freedom of movement of people. Out of an abundance of caution, there are some aspects within the Treaty that will require amendment.
Therefore, we are giving ourselves between now and the 30th of March, 2024 to make the amendments. Because we recognize as well that there may have to be an approach that does not make countries liable to any sort of suit with regards to the rights,” the Prime Minister said.
According to Mottley, these efforts will have to be financed, and consideration is being given to using the Caricom Development Fund for this very purpose. Mottley further drew attention to the fact that the revised Treaty of Chaguaramas contains restrictions for national security and balance of payment purposes.
“We have determined that in order to facilitate freedom of movement, we have to do it in a way where we guarantee the minimum level of rights. And that may relate to primary and pre-primary education and emergency health care,” Mottley said.
With the regional conference completed, United States (US) Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was in Port of Spain as a guest of the conference, is expected to make a stopover in Guyana today. While in Guyana, he will have high profile meetings with President Dr Irfaan Ali and cabinet.