Guyana driving agricultural agenda in region – Agri Minister

With Guyana recently taking up the chairmanship of the Special Ministerial Task Force on agriculture in the Caribbean Community (Caricom), Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha said that Guyana is once again driving the agriculture agenda in the region.

Guyana has for some time had the epithet “bread basket of the Caribbean”. According to Mustapha during a recent programme, the country is firmly back on track as a regional leader in agricultural matters.
“Guyana today is on the international stage. We are driving the agenda of agriculture in the Caribbean. We have once again taken our rightful place. Our President is our lead spokesperson on agriculture in Caricom,” Mustapha said.
“Guyana today is chairing the Special Ministerial Task Force on the agri food system in Caricom. And we are diversifying, not only going through the normal activities that were there all the time, traditional activities like the crops. We are diversifying, including what we have and we are moving to create more crops.”
The Minister also spoke of the progress the Ministry of Agriculture has made under his tenure. According to him, there has been an increase in production in a number of areas, including in the rice industry.

“More markets are being created for our farmers. they are now embarking on more development in terms of agri-processing. Generally, we are moving the sector from a subsistence sector to one where we are back on track,” Mustapha said.
The Special Ministerial Task Force is a product of the 32nd Caricom Heads of Government Meeting that was held in February. President Dr Irfaan Ali had put forward the Food Production and Food Security Agenda during the meeting and Caricom subsequently endorsed the agenda, agreeing to the establishment of the task force to implement the strategy.
The task force comprises Agriculture Ministers and other officials from Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, The Bahamas, Dominica, Jamaica, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Mustapha, who currently serves as Chairman of that Special Ministerial Task Force, had hosted the inaugural meeting with Ministers of Agriculture from the ten participating Caricom member states in April.
During his address at the meeting, Mustapha had said the objective of the task force is to guide the regional position towards the transformation of the agri-food system, allowing for a significantly more resilient, wealth-generating and food-secure region.
To this end, the Minister had also said that an implementation plan with 36 broad policy areas will be used. Select priority sectors such as poultry, corn/soya bean, rice, beef, pork, mutton, coconut, niche vegetables, fruits, and fruit juices, ginger and turmeric have also been identified to advance the commercialisation agenda of the regional food system.
During the meeting, the Task Force also reviewed, amended, and accepted the Terms of Reference (ToR) which were developed by a team of technical officers from the Caricom Secretariat. The TOR outlines the objectives, purpose, membership and governance of the task force.
Programme Manager with responsibility for Agricultural and Agro-Industrial Development of Caricom, Shaun Baugh had also discussed the implementation plan for the strategy during the meeting.
He had said the objective of the plan was to commercialise the regional agri-food industry with actual commencement of Private Sector production activities in priority sectors identified, within a three-year window. He also discussed several broad policy measures and reforms required to support the commercialisation of the region’s agri-food system.
For 2020, Guyana saw mixed performances from the agriculture sector. While sugar production fell, rice production increased. The rice-growing sector grew by 4.8 per cent, with paddy production reaching 1,057,580 tonnes in 2020. With respect to the production of other crops, despite excessive rainfall in November and December, this sector is estimated to have grown by 6.6 per cent in 2020. (G3)