Through collaborative workshop…
MINISTER of Agriculture, Mr. Robert Persaud, said yesterday that enabling farmers to track their cost of production is very necessary if the agricultural sector is going to be made successful in the true sense. He said not enough attention is paid to the business side of agriculture and that training is necessary to fill the dearth of focus on it.
Persaud was speaking at the commencement of a training workshop towards that objective at the Centre for Information Technology at the University of Guyana, Turkeyen Campus, East Coast Demerara.
The two-day programme is a collaborative effort between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and will include field visits.
Persaud said that the exercise will make the business side of agriculture truly appreciated for the benefits that it could deliver to the sector.
While the Government develops the agriculture diversification programme, he said:
“We wanted to cater for not only the science or the art of agriculture but also the business side of it.”
Persaud noted that agriculture is an activity rooted in profits and self-sustenance, to make money and many farmers do not keep income and expenditure records but would, usually, come up with an estimation of the value of their produce, although there is no formalised system for doing so.
He said “those of us in positions” are, perhaps, the ones to be blamed, as they tend to deal with the supply side of things, the hardware aspect.
“We don’t give regular support to allow these enterprises to ensure that they are run and managed like a business. If they look at the statements, they will see how they can reduce their costs,” Persaud posited.
True value
He said it is the general belief, in the region, that food must be cheap. But he maintained  that the cost of production must be factored in, after carefully assessing what is the true value.
If attention is not paid to sustainability in food production, the world could, again, be plunged into a crisis situation, not unlike 2008, Persaud warned.
He said the Government’s Agricultural Development Programme has included a $20M component for training of this nature and it is hoped that specific software, that could be adapted to other areas in the sector, are included.
Persaud assured farmers that persons from the Guyana Revenue Authority will not demand the information they keep for tax purposes.
“It is for you to better run your business, so that you can make adjustments and improvements,” he told the workshop participants.
Further training will be conducted at UG under the guidance of Mr. Edric Harry, Policy Analysis and Planning Specialist, IICA Office in Trinidad and Tobago.
Also speaking at the forum, IICA Country Representative in Guyana, Mr. Ignatius Jean said that the programme was conceptualized after discussions between IICA and the Ministry of Agriculture, during a food security conference held at Princess Hotel in 2009.
“It is commonly said that information is power. We live in a world with lots of information,” he remarked, adding that it can be, sometimes, difficult to keep pace with it.
However, it is important for this information to be converted to power and money, the diplomat remarked.
Jean said not a lot of the information is being converted to the advantage of farmers.
In his view: “A major challenge for the sector has been information management within the sector, collecting, sorting and using it in decision making.”
Jean said any successful business entails keeping timely and accurate information and a good record keeping system helps the farmer to see the consequences of his decisions.
He observed, as well, that not a lot of persons like keeping financial records, not only in the agriculture sector. Part of the problem is that farmers believe the authorities will seek to use the information against them but he insisted that the information will give the farmers power to make the right decisions.
“You will know what to produce and in what quantity. Farmers will know what prices to charge for their produce,” Jean said.