GUYANA’S first ever international research conference on agriculture opens here today, and its focus will be research on rice and its production.

According to Agriculture Minister, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, the three-day caucus is, over time, expected to gain momentum and prestige, attracting participation from researchers from Latin America, the Caribbean, and North America and further afield.
KNOWLEDGE-BASED

The conference, which is proposed to be an annual event, is part of the ministry’s prioritising of a knowledge-based approach to agriculture development in seeking to achieve the objectives of its 2013-2020 National Agriculture Strategy for Guyana.

Significant focus will be on long-term investment in research and development as an important pre-requisite to raising productivity, improving profitability and enhancing competitiveness. In this regard, agriculture support agencies and institutions such as the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) the Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA,) the Guyana School of Agriculture (GSA) and the University of Guyana (UG) are set to become leaders in agricultural research and development.
CENTRE AT BURMA

The Guyana Rice Development Board’s Rice Research Centre at Burma, Region 5, will also become the premier rice training centre in the Caribbean.
The focus will be on adding value to local farm produce by building strong linkages to food and beverage manufacturing or agro-industry.
The ministry has already established a national oversight committee which at present is working on drafting a national research agenda to not only guide the research that is needed for the ministry and its agencies, but also for everyone working in Guyana, including the developing partners to guide and outline the research needed, the Agriculture Minister said.
RESEARCH AGENDA
He also said that the National Agriculture Research Committee will formulate a national agriculture research agenda by the end of 2014.
The ministry’s 2013-2020 National Strategy for Agriculture in Guyana is a series of activities around 25 priority areas, with specific indicators for success. It sets out an overarching goal of achieving food and nutrition security in an environmentally sustainable manner, while at the same time generating economic growth and opportunities.
The ministry will also be focusing on imposing a new marketing strategy for agricultural products. Minister Ramsammy explained that the ministry is actively pursuing markets for different products as the way in which this was addressed through agencies such as the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) and the New Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC) cannot achieve what the ministry is seeking, with regards to its agriculture vision.
The ministry’s particular focus on marketing of the country’s agriculture enterprise has been on linking farmers, especially small-scale, with markets. The focus will now be on developing a robust export marketing programme and as such a Market Information System is to be developed.
The ministry will also aggressively pursue production geared towards establishing a Guyana brand.