Devastation from Hurricane Beryl: Daunting road ahead to rebuild Region’s agriculture sectors – Pres Ali

…urges Caricom Task Force to meet with IICA, other agencies to aid islands

…as ‘25 by 2025’ plans significantly delayed

In the wake of the destruction caused by Hurricane Beryl on the region, particularly on the agriculture sectors of various countries, which were seeking to achieve the ‘25 by 2025’ goal, President Dr Irfaan Ali has taken a key role in organising meetings between the Ministerial Task Force on Agriculture and international agencies, in order to trigger the rebuilding process.

Guyana is currently chairing the Caribbean Community (Caricom) Ministerial Task Force on Food Production and Food Security, which has been driving the ‘25 by 2025’ initiative seeking to boost food production within the region to reduce food imports.
In a video address on Sunday, President Ali explained that as the lead head on agriculture in the region, he will be reaching out to multi-lateral institutions like the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) for them to intervene and provide assistance to regional farmers from an early stage.
This will ensure that farmers will be granted the necessary resources and support to rebuild. As a matter of fact, the president noted that he has asked the Chair of the Ministerial Task Force this week, to convene a meeting that will include IICA, as well as the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa).
From these meetings, proposals can be made to the new Chairman of Caricom, Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell, whose country was actually one of those hit hardest by the hurricane.

Timing of hurricane
The head of state also expressed concern at the timing of Hurricane Beryl, since this is only the beginning of the Hurricane season and already, a number of islands have suffered devasting impacts from the disaster.
“I am tremendously concerned about the set back that hurricane Beryl would have, on the 25 by 2025 food security plan. The initial assessment is heart wrenching, for our farmers. For our governments and to the people of these countries,” he explained.
“It is heart wrenching, because of the tremendous investment, policy commitments and budget support that was placed in the agricultural sector since 2020. Investment in infrastructure, water system, technology, farm support, farm to market infrastructure. Many of these countries would have lost these investments.”
The destruction caused by Hurricane Beryl on the region, has impacted not only the tourism industry but also agriculture. According to him, hundreds of acres of agriculture produce have been destroyed in countries like Barbados.
“The initial assessment, on the impact of Beryl on the agricultural sector, not only shows that we have lost the years of hard work and investment, but the immediate damage to infrastructure, crops and livelihood from the agriculture and fisheries sector, is in the tens of millions of dollars.”
“That’s a desktop initial review. It is important to note that Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia, Jamaica, Barbados. These were countries on track, mostly, to achieving the 25 by 2025 target set by themselves,” President Ali said.
According to President Ali, based on an assessment delivered, at his request, by the Chair of the Ministerial Task force, hurricane Beryl has completely wiped out the agriculture sectors in these countries.

Rebuilding
President Ali noted that both the initial and long-term costs of rebuilding in the wake of the hurricane, will be devasting. This is compounded by the fact that many long-term crops that were of a high yielding variety, have been damaged.
“The way in which we have to rebuild, is to keep resilience and sustainability. And I think the use of hydroponics and shade houses, immediately, will be critical. Because this can accelerate how much vegetables and crops and so on, we can put back on the market quickly, which would give the farmers shorter time lags in terms of getting back resources.”
“We’re also asking the Ministerial Task Force to look at the prices and price stability, to look at what are the critical commodities needed to negotiate with our neighbors. To have those commodities supplied, to keep the price of livestock (stable)… we have to ensure that the market forces does not add additional pressure especially on the lower income families.”

President Ali warned of the devastating impact that inflation can have on the already beleaguered islands. He noted that one of the initial responses, meanwhile, will be getting food into these hurricane-hit islands.
“In the initial phase of dealing with the consequences of the hurricane, the quick fix now is to get more immediate food in. Whether its pasta, more grain products. So, we can also have the nutritional food value.”

Hurricane
Hurricane Beryl first made landfall on Monday last on Carriacou, an island in Grenada. Beryl reached a Category 5 hurricane status in the Atlantic on Monday, with peak winds of 165 mph (270 kph). In addition to Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Beryl wreaked havoc in Barbados, St. Lucia, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago – countries with large Guyanese diasporas.
Over 38000 Guyanese residing in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), Barbados and Trinidad were reportedly affected by the devasting Hurricane Beryl, which continues to plough through the Caribbean with record-breaking wind speeds, causing massive destruction including loss of lives.
The latest update on the hurricane is that it is expected to make landfall in Texas, United States (US) today. This is after it would have battered the Caribbean and Mexico, leaving over 10 people dead and disrupting economies on the various small islands, from tourism to agriculture… in particular the 25 by 2025 goals that were first championed by Guyana and President Ali, before and during his Chairmanship of CARICOM in the first part of the year.
Vision 25 by 2025 aims for the Caribbean to achieve a 25 per cent reduction in the Region’s food import bill by the year 2025. Owing to the Region’s dependency on imported foods, it faces hardships when disruptions occur. And in light of this, the intention was to formulate a sense of food stability and security… country by country, with Guyana playing a key role in helping other countries achieve greater food security.