…at launch of Grow More Food Phase Two
PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday charged farmers to be mindful of the challenges that climate change presents to agriculture, as he reassured of government’s focus on the importance of the sector to Guyana and the region, as crises present opportunities.
He spoke at the launch of the Grow More Food Phase Two Project held at the Square of the Revolution.
“We are one of the few countries in the region that have still kept a strong residual interest in agriculture,” he said.

“Agriculture’s future in Guyana is secure, largely because of your interest,” he said. “We will be there to support with policies and infrastructure. We will ensure that the policy environment and incentives are aligned to encourage production,” said President Jagdeo.

He said although the Government is trying to create a modern economy, there will be a role for agriculture. He said that because of the changing nature of agriculture, there are areas that young people can get into, outside of tilling the soil. These, he said, are fields such as research and development, marketing and logistics support, and technology to enhance agriculture.

“We still may be able to capture the interest of people [with those new areas in agriculture],” he said.

He spoke of the need for farmers to have an open mind about production, productivity and diversification in the face of changing practices to better withstand the effects of climate change on the sector.

“We are asking farmers to be more sensitive in their decisions regarding agriculture and climate change.” This he said would include better water management, which he called a vital part of climate smart agriculture.

Further, he said that they must manage their finances in an efficient way in order to maximise returns from their efforts.

“We want to work with the farmers to fit them into what we are working on at the national level,” he said. He said the Government is expanding the livestock sector of the country, while at the same time, doing research on breeding stock with a view to enhancing productivity.

President Jagdeo, the lead Caricom Head with responsibility for agriculture, said he has been pushing the issue within the region, referring to his Jagdeo Initiative which has as its mandate to make agriculture more competitive in the region by addressing and removing a number of binding constraints to the competitiveness of the agriculture sector.

But he said that it is only during times of food price crises that some Caricom countries focus on agriculture, and how it could reduce the region’s over US$3 billion annual food import bill. He said that unlike these countries, Guyana has placed focus on agriculture as it has a very important future.

He said while Guyana produces almost every food item consumed here, there are still opportunities that can be capitalised on in terms of tapping this regional market. He said this is because the trend is for food prices to increase, due to growing populations and the growth of income leading to changing dietary habits.

Speaking at the event, Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud said that the government had launched the first Grow More Food campaign in the midst of the global food crisis during which some countries were unable to buy food, which led to social unrest. He said government wanted to place focus on and lend support to maintaining the resilience that was established, so that Guyana could eventually tap into the market that the Caribbean presents.
The minister said that since the first Grow More Food campaign, there has been “a rush” of investment in agriculture from companies in India, Brazil and North America. For this, he said, government has identified large tracts of land in the intermediate savannahs.

He said that since the commencement of the Grow More Food initiative, non-traditional exports went up by 34 percent.

The campaign will now be intensified to cater for greater challenges and support, not only for small farmers, but expanding medium and large-scale agro investments to benefit from opportunities resulting from the global food crisis.

At the end of the launch, government distributed fertilizers, seeds, planting materials and livestock to farmers and farmers’ groups across the country.

According to a release from the Agriculture Ministry,  since mid-2010, and throughout the early months of 2011, global food prices have been steadily rising, surpassing even the levels reached during the crisis of 2008.

The ministry said for those countries that specialize in the export of raw materials, this increase in agricultural prices affords them a unique opportunity to improve their terms of trade. However, it may also be very costly for them in terms of decreased food security, increased malnutrition, and possible social unrest, especially in net food- importing countries.

“The persistence of volatility, which is the result of constant variations in price, will continue to create great uncertainty for farmers, added to the great risks already posed by climate change and recurrent pests and diseases,” the ministry said.

Therefore, agriculture in Guyana must undergo a significant transformation in order to meet the related challenges of achieving food security and responding to climate change.

“Projections based on population growth and food consumption patterns indicate that agricultural production will need to increase by at least 70 percent to meet demands by 2050. Most estimates also indicate that climate change is likely to reduce agricultural productivity, production stability and incomes in some areas that already have high levels of food insecurity. Developing climate smart agriculture is thus crucial to achieving future food security and climate change goals,” the ministry said.

The achievements of the Grow More Food campaign, which commenced in on March 20, 2008, and which focused on increasing food production in Guyana by adopting a market led approach, are many. They included the implementation of a US$21.9M Agricultural Export Diversification Programme; implementation of a US$6M Rural Enterprise & Agricultural Development Programme; increased investment in drainage and irrigation by restoring drainage to areas abandoned by farmers and training farmers to manage the maintenance of rehabilitated structures at a cost of $12 B since 2008; enhanced extension services through the creation of the Guyana Livestock Development Authority and the revamped National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute; and increased availability of agricultural inputs, such as seeds, planting materials and improved breeds for all categories of livestock which
include cattle, small ruminants and poultry.

According to the ministry, rural farmers, agro investors, processors, exporters and all those involved in the value chain have benefited from the investments made by the government over the past five years to boost food production and to attain lucrative means of earning a livelihood.

“Consequently, these results emanated from the investments made in the non-traditional agriculture sector which allowed exports to increase by 115 percent in 2010, when compared to 2005,” the ministry said.

“Further, Guyana is the only country in the southern hemisphere that is a net exporter of food and has achieved the United Nations first Millennium Development Goal of eradicating hunger,” the ministry said.

“The Ministry of Agriculture will continue to place prominence on food security and climate change by transforming agriculture and adopting practices that are ‘climate-smart’. To this end, a number of production systems are already being used by farmers and food producers to adapt to climate change, and reduce vulnerability,” the ministry said.