The decision by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) to award President Dr Ifaan Ali for his Leadership in Food Security and Sustainable Development, though not surprising, is an achievement for all of Guyana.
This prestigious award comes at a time when President Ali is not only vocal about regional food security, but has been very active in his agricultural transformation agenda. Vision 25 by 2025 was conceptualised by President Ali for 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 is to formulate a sense of food stability and security.
Earlier this year, at Caribbean Week of Agriculture, Ali had called on agricultural experts to formulate implementable actions, such as resilient food production systems, trade solutions, online platforms, financial flows, transportation solutions, youth and women involvement, product development, and innovative funding.
Dubbing Vision 25 by 2025 as a ‘tipping point’ for the Caribbean, Ali had said, and we quote: “Failure must not be contemplated. We must persevere. Paralysis of action will be fatal. There is much more work to be done.”
During his speech, Ali called on agricultural experts to formulate implementable actions, such as resilient food production systems, trade solutions, online platforms, financial flows, transportation solutions, youth and women involvement, product development, and innovative funding.
This is not the first time Guyana is trailblazing efforts for food security. If one can recall, in 2015, Guyana was among 38 countries that achieved the first Millennium Development Goal ahead of the 2015 deadline – to halve the percentage of persons in the country who were hungry compared to baseline figures from 1990. This was more than gratifying.
That we were one of only 18 countries to have achieved the more stringent World Food Summit goal set in 1996, to halve the number of undernourished persons by 2012, was astounding for a country that had been plunged to the level of sub-Saharan Africa by the PNC by 1992, when the PPP/C took office.
Also in 2002, the then President Bharrat Jagdeo, who had lead responsibility at the time for Agriculture in the Caricom quasi-Cabinet, had sought assistance from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) to boost the Region’s efforts in ensuring it is food secure. One year after, he proposed that the Region build on its past efforts to develop a common agricultural policy, and requested that the IICA and the FAO support the Caricom Secretariat in developing a framework for repositioning agriculture in the Region.
In underlining the problems that the agricultural sector faces in the Region, Jagdeo had stressed that in the changing global environment, the sector was neither providing for food security nor earning the foreign exchange needed to cover the Region’s growing food import bill.
In addition, at a Caricom Heads of Government Conference in Grand Anse, Grenada, Jagdeo had presented a paper entitled “A Framework for the Repositioning of Caribbean Agriculture”. In that framework, he had stressed the need for a regional policy and strategy aimed at strengthening food security and alleviating poverty; and in January 2005, the President’s proposal was formally dubbed the “Jagdeo Initiative”, with the theme “Strengthening Agriculture for Sustainable Development”.
Earlier this year during the first Caricom Ministerial Task Force (MTF) on Food Production and Food Security meeting for 2023, it was announced that Caricom have collectively achieved a significant 57 per cent of the target set to realise “Vision 25 by 2025”.
This demonstrates that the hard work put in by all countries will see the Region moving closer towards achieving food security.
We offer our congratulations to President Ali on achieving this prestigious award through his visionary thinking in developing the “25 by 2025” initiative.
