Pull Quote: ‘People will recall that the world reeled from rising food and fuel prices in 2008; with the exception of Guyana, CARICOM Member States did practically nothing to cushion the ill effects of this barrage of price increases on their people; and even with the imminent and massive food security challenge knocking on their doors in 2008, they practically did nothing then, and today remain lethargically committed to consolidating food security in the region’

Pull Quote: ‘…in the region, excepting Guyana, there are only languid moves to advance regional agriculture and constant intra-regional commiseration over huge food import bills and increased inflation …’
HUNGER AND poverty, lamentably history’s symbiotic twins, have always been part of poignant human bonding for the disadvantaged for centuries, and the year 2008 merely served to remind us humans that the disadvantaged were still with us. Invariably, history identifies for us governments that neglected their responsibility to attend to the disadvantaged. People will recall that the world reeled from rising food and fuel prices in 2008; with the exception of Guyana, CARICOM Member States did practically nothing to cushion the ill effects of this barrage of price increases on their people; and even with the imminent and massive food security challenge knocking on their doors in 2008, they practically did nothing then, and today remain lethargically committed to consolidating food security in the region. This lethargy among CARICOM Member States, minus Guyana, happened and is persisting, notwithstanding numerous exhortations and pleas from the Lead Head of State for Agriculture, President Bharrat Jagdeo.

And here are some captions in 2008 immortalizing the scourge of astronomical food prices and food crisis, eventually casting food security as a permanent fixture on any government’s agenda, or any government that cares for the disadvantaged:
Food crisis is depicted as ‘silent tsunami’ – The Washington Post, April 23, 2008
Haiti’s president tries to halt crisis over food – The New York Times, April 10, 2008
Trinidad & Tobago, Bahamas: Rising food prices – GlobalVoices, April 22, 2008
2008: The year of global food crisis – HeraldScotland, March 8, 2008
Rising food prices threaten poverty reduction – The World Bank, April 9, 2008
Rising Global Food Prices Likely to Continue, Say Experts – America.gov, April 14, 2008
Food prices are rising worldwide – The Boston Globe, March 30, 2008
The looming global food shortage – Jamaica Gleaner, March 20, 2008
Caribbean: Food Shortages – GlobalVoices, April 30, 2008

The Guyana Government countered the twin evils of rising food and fuel prices in 2008 and in its aftermath vis-à-vis the following: A 5% increase in remuneration for public service employees, effective January 1, 2008; temporary cost-of- living adjustment of $4,000 monthly to pubic service employees earning $50,000 and less per month; subsidies to the Guyana Power & Light and Guyana Water, Inc., to stem water and electricity rates’ increases; the exclusion of value added tax (VAT) on all essential food items; no excise tax on diesel; a reduced tax on gasoline; zero tax on kerosene and cooking gas; the provision of a flour subsidy of $200 million to cushion price increases of flour and bread; implementation of the ‘Grow More Food’ campaign; administration of the US$600  million READ project and the US$21.9 million ADE project; and finding new lands to step up food production in foods and other crops.

If I am not mistaken, no other CARICOM country provided its people with such considerable economic cushions in the wake of huge food and fuel price increases in 2008. And President Bharrat Jagdeo, as Lead Head of State for Agriculture within CARICOM, continues to address the food crisis challenge.

For, at the CARICOM Heads of Government meeting in July 2008 in Antigua and Barbuda, President Bharrat Jagdeo observed: “…our regional food import bill is over $3 billion; food accounts for up to 20% of total imports in some of our countries; and almost all of our countries have a negative food trade balance that rises in some cases to as much as 10% of the Gross Domestic Product. Recent developments in food prices also pose a serious threat to the macroeconomic stability in our Region. We also know that by 2030, the global demand for food will double. With the growing of food crops to be converted to bio-fuels reducing supply, and with growing populations and changing diets increasing demand, many regions may not only face rising prices, but shortages of food…” (CARICOM Communications 2008)

Jagdeo, at this Heads of Government meeting, also observed that investment and increased governmental spending on agriculture would be critical factors for enhancing food security in the region. He noted then that Guyana pioneered a successful regional agricultural investment forum in 2008; nonetheless, he pointed out that that forum could have fared better, but for the absence of senior regional government functionaries.

Jagdeo reenergized his plea for more regional governmental incentives, and increased budgetary resources for agriculture at the Public-Private Sector Consultation on agribusiness in 2009 in Georgetown; at that meeting, too, the President alluded to the ‘patent neglect’ of agriculture within CARICOM (CARICOM Communications 2009). And in the region, excepting Guyana, there are only languid moves to advance regional agriculture and constant intra-regional commiseration over huge food import bills and increased inflation; in the meantime, food security already has become a colossal challenge for the region.

Clearly, Jagdeo raised the ante on the coming crisis of food security; that was in 2008. But the President engaged himself in this endeavour long before 2008. He initiated the concept of the Jagdeo Initiative on Agriculture (JIA), way back in 2002, as another approach to address the food crisis challenge. It is well known now that at that time, the President, in advancing this Initiative, consulted with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Inter-American  Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture (IICA), and the CARICOM Secretariat to transform regional agriculture. And the JIA had its initiation and blessings at the CARICOM Heads of Government meeting in 2004.

The JIA proposed, among other things, that we must begin to see agriculture as a business; as holistic, extending the full length of the agri-product chain with full natural connections to other productive sectors; we must see the significance of value-added and non-food products; exploit national events when they could increase the worth of agriculture; and utilize CARICOM’s existing positions on agriculture where appropriate (CARICOM Communications 2006). Guyana is diligently fashioning the JIA in its agricultural efforts, not the other CARICOM partners.

And right now, a new crest of rising global food prices is looming on the horizon; commodity prices are at their highest in 30 months, and Brent crude oil reached US$100 per barrel (Shellock, Financial Times, January 14, 2011). Excepting Guyana, the other Member States of CARICOM, with their limited response to the JIA and limited incentives and governmental expenditures on agriculture, now have an uphill task on their hands to ward off rising global food prices and inflation.
But compared to 2008, Guyana today is better positioned to withstand the ravages of the ‘eye of the storm’ food price increases and inflation. CARICOM continues to mess with regional food security through its indifference on agriculture.