–    A plus for Guyana to make moves on the international scene
THE issue of food security and the need to increase production, expressly in light of the anticipated need for a 70 per cent increase in food production by 2050, is one that is increasingly engaging stakeholders in the local agriculture sector.
General-Secretary of the Guyana Rice Producers’ Association (RPA), Mr. Dharamkumar Seeraj, told the Guyana Chronicle, in an interview, that the country’s production will have to step up if the sector is to make the best of this opportunity.
He stressed that Guyana has the capacity for horizontal expansion – the capacity to take up more lands – a “luxury” many agriculture-based countries do not have.
“We have the land…we can expand our agricultural activities by taking up more lands under cultivation…we have the resources,” Seeraj said.
Guyana is estimated to have as much as 220,000 acres for rice cultivation alone, plus, in excess of another 500,000 acres for other crops.
This is not including the thousands of acres available for sugar cultivation and the additional thousands more in the hinterland regions, which can be brought under cultivation to expand production in different areas.
Additionally, massive investments are being made in the agriculture sector, particularly in infrastructure development.
One such recent development is the $45.9M two-door sluice at Alness, Region Six (East Berbice/ Corentyne), which was commissioned in the first week of January.
Important too is the fact that Guyana enjoys a food secure status – a result of much work; for example, the Grow More Food Campaign, which saw more lands taken under cultivation.
The Grow More Food Campaign, even with its challenges, has had many success stories.
One such is that of the Buxton/ Friendship Grantee’s Co-op Society, whose Chairman, Mr. Leroy Hamer, said his group was able to export 6,000 pounds of pumpkins last year.

Seeraj stated that the Grow More Food Campaign has been “pretty successful,” especially in addressing the local consumption needs.
He pointed out that moves have been made in accessing regional and North American markets.
However, he noted that there needs to be more focus on marketing, an area the New Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC) can facilitate by linking farmers with the markets.
According to the FAO, food prices have surpassed the previous high they hit during the global commodities spike in 2007 and 2008.
The FAO measures food prices from an index made up of a basket of key commodities such as wheat, milk, and sugar. The index hit 215 points last month, up from 206 in November, to break the 213.5 registered in June 2008, which was the last time food prices reached a record high.
It shows a dramatic rise in prices for food in a decade.
However, the FAO said it was not yet “a crisis” because of the relatively stable prices for rice, one of the two most important cereals for global food security, which remains far below its record high.

Seeraj stressed that with the increase in food prices, the Grow More Food Campaign will play a key role in keeping local prices stable and, from the farmers’ point of view, open up more opportunities for export.

Increasing Food Security

Also in light of the increase in food prices, the RPA General-Secretary said a focus on staples will be a must; in particular, focus on expanding the production and export of rice, which would allow Guyana’s food secure status and see the country benefitting from the opportunity to supply a growing demand.

Rice — the staple of 3 billion people in Asia and Africa.

In a recent edition of the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Food Outlook report, the agency issued a warning to the international community to prepare for harder times ahead unless production of major food crops increases significantly in 2011.
“Given the expectation of falling global inventories, the size of next year’s crops will be critical in setting the tone for stability in international markets,” FAO said. “For major cereals, production must expand substantially to meet utilization and to reconstitute world reserves, and farmers are likely to respond to the prevailing prices by expanding plantings.”
Unfortunately, the cost of the other critical staple, wheat, is now rising because of poor harvests in producing countries, more recently, in Queensland, Australia, where the flooding situation has impacted the global wheat price.
Compounding matters is the export ban in Russia, the largest wheat producing country, which is still in force.
In this context, the disparity between supply and demand, the RPA General-Secretary reiterated that Guyana has the potential to do much more.
He said in the past, as much as 216,000 acres of rice has been cultivated in one season alone – indicative of the capacity that exists locally.
Currently, Seeraj said, 180,000 acres are being routinely cultivated.
According to him, major focus must first be placed on efficient servicing of existing lands used for rice cultivation, as well as on increasing marketing activities.

Thereafter, emphasis can be placed on recapturing lands and realizing Guyana’s full potential for producing the staple that is in great demand.
“We will have to look at recapturing the lands that were previously cultivated, as well as new lands…the infrastructural developments and the upward movement in prices will ensure response from farmers,” Seeraj posited.

MDG Link

With the call for increased production, more so to meet a 70 per cent increase in demand, other variables come into play and need to be considered.
An FAO discussion paper, published in the latter part of September in 2009, highlighted that producing more food for an additional 2.3 billion people by 2050, while at the same time combating poverty and hunger, using scarce natural resources more efficiently, and adapting to climate change are the main challenges world agriculture will face in the coming decades.
Seeraj stated that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are essentially linked to agriculture, expressly goal one: ‘Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger’; and seven: ‘Ensure environmental sustainability.’
He explained that one of the biggest and more effective vehicles to eradicate poverty and hunger is agriculture.
“Agriculture itself is linked to this goal…while an increase in production helps to reduce hunger, improvements in infrastructure for agricultural developments is a move towards rural development also, hence it has an impact on reducing poverty,” Seeraj said.
He stressed that progress, with eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, is intricately linked to progress with agriculture, expressly in rural areas.

As for the seventh MDG and the need to integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes to minimize the environmental impacts, Seeraj said agriculture practices must be environmentally-friendly if they are to be sustainable.
“You cannot have one without the other. You cannot protect the environment without paying attention to sustainable crop production,” he said.
The RPA General-Secretary stated that, in this light, there are a number of frameworks in which agricultural practices are advanced.
As a case in point, he highlighted the provisions made in the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs).
“These are chemicals which take a long time to break down in the environment so they are not recommended for agricultural use,” Seeraj said.
Guyana has ratified this convention which aims to control the use of POPs, since they are capable of affecting human health and the environment far away from the regions where they are used and released.
Seeraj observed that the local agriculture sector’s practices are sensitive to the environment.
In November last year, sector stakeholders were made more aware, during a workshop, of climate change’s impacts on agriculture outputs in five main sub-sectors: rice, sugar, livestock, fisheries and other crops.
The workshop was held under the theme ‘Adapting to Climate Change: Towards Climate Smart Agriculture in Guyana’, and stakeholders agreed on the importance of being ‘Climate Smart’ in advancing agricultural activities.
Economically, the agricultural sector contributes 35 per cent of Guyana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP); 40 per cent of export earnings; and 30 per cent of the country’s workforce.
“There has been an overall commitment to sustainable progress, and in Guyana, that commitment has been an accelerated one…Guyana’s agriculture sector is positioned well,” Seeraj opined.