Integrated approach needed to tackle food insecurity – Agri Minister to UN food summit

As Guyana continues to adjust its National Pathway to facilitate its food system transformation, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha called for an integrated approach towards handling food insecurity within the Caribbean and Latin America at large.

Minister Mustapha made this remark on Wednesday while delivering an address at the United Nations Food Systems Summit +2 Stocktaking Moment in Rome, Italy.
This particular discussion on using National Pathways as a platform for enhancement of public policies with close support from the UN system saw case studies from not only Guyana but also Peru and Guatemala.
“Guyana strongly advocates that our approach to food security must be targeted and involve integration of the agriculture, health, education and technology sectors, along with climate change mitigation, so that food security can be better guaranteed by our efforts towards achieving our 2030 agenda,” Mustapha said.
“I think that if we can work collectively and as one region – Latin America and the Caribbean – we can be a giant force to be reckoned with,” Mustapha said.
He explained that Guyana has already commenced bilateral engagement and work in the agriculture sector with a number of Caribbean countries, including Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Meanwhile, on the individual level, Guyana has adjusted its National Pathway document to take into account feedback from all stakeholders, including its development partners, the Private Sector, and farmers.

This National Pathway, adopted by a number of other countries, aims to identify gaps and solutions in order to fulfil the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Two being to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.
Minister Mustapha explained that Guyana has already implemented several measures to attain this goal.
“We have started by increasing budgetary allocations to agriculture by 150 per cent. We are investing in enhanced infrastructure – farm-to-market roads, drainage and irrigation, laboratories [and] agro-processing, to assist our farmers,” Mustapha said.
“To add to this, we are addressing the input needed for our farms through a farm input distribution system [where we] provide farmers with input such as seeds, fertilisers, insecticides, small tools and equipment and breeding animals,” Mustapha added.
The Government of Guyana has also been providing financial assistance to farmers, Mustapha noted, with President Dr Irfaan Ali recently announcing a three per cent reduction in interest rates on loans to poultry farmers.
Furthermore, Guyana also stands at the helm of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) Vision 25 by 2025 in which the countries are seeking to reduce their food import bill by 25 per cent by 2025.

Development partners
Minister Mustapha also acknowledged the financial and technical expertise in food security, agriculture and nutrition, gained from international partners, including the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO); International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP).
“With FAO, many programmes supported our National Pathway, including the resilient agricultural value chain, disaster risk management, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in agriculture, our first food security legislation, and strengthening data and statistics for monitoring our progress,” Mustapha said.
This partnership with FAO continues as Guyana is set to host the 38th FAO Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean in 2024.
“Similarly with IFAD, we have many projects for the improvement of livelihood and advancement of the food system [including] the Hinterland Environmentally Sustainable Agricultural Development Programme, which supports investment in the improvement of livelihoods, through income generation. access to assets, improved nutrition and adaptation to climate variability,” Mustapha said.
These measures, Mustapha explained, are seeing “great results, “because they are not being implemented in isolation of each other, but rather using an integrated approach.