IN the Friday, September 2, 2011, edition of Kaieteur News, the article
entitled; “APNU accuses government of creating adversity in the Agriculture Sector,” highlighted some unfair statements about the agricultural sector of our economy by Dr. Mc Pherson who was at the time addressing the media at his party’s weekly media briefing session at Congress Place, Sophia. The comments made by this representative of the A Partnership for National Unity(APNU) does not reflect the full workings of the Ministry of Agriculture and its partnering agencies who have worked effectively over the years to ensure that agriculture continues to be one of the major driving forces for the Guyana economy.

The other crops sector continues to benefit from Government’s Agricultural Diversification Programme and the Grow More Food Campaign and at the end of the first half of 2011, the sub-sector had recorded a three percent growth rate.
Weather conditions are expected to be more favourable after July, which
would augur well for production, and there is no revision to the projection of two percent growth.

For the first half of  2011, the Government of Guyana had spent $680M of the allocated $1.5B for the agriculture sector  to ensure that planned
programmes and policies were implemented for the sector’s advancement, with the aim of promoting and developing the non-traditional subsectors. For the small-holder farmers, a credit facility was also launched under the Rural Enterprise and Agriculture Development programme (READ), to further provide support, with the aim of expanding their productive capacity.

Farmers of Community Based Organizations have benefited from training
exercises, as well as preparation of business plans. This is expected to
continue throughout the year, and will target a number of farmers’ groups.
The Small Credit Facility which falls under the auspices of the Agriculture Export Diversification Programme (AEDP) will allow farmers to secure funds for the expansion of farming activities, while business plans prepared for the three cluster groups (fruits and vegetables, livestock and aquaculture),will become operational shortly.

Livestock farmers will also benefit from improved services with the
construction of a genetic bank for the National Dairy Development Programme while rehabilitation works to control structures and access roads at Canals
Polder have also been moving apace. While rehabilitation work to the germ
plasm laboratory at the National Agricultural Research and Extension
Institute (NAREI), has been completed, the procurement process for field,
inspection and laboratory equipment is proceeding for the operationa
lisation of the facility.

Therefore, the quotations by Dr. Mr Pherson, from previous Commodity Market Updates are not reflective of the current second quarter CMU which is on our website. For the increase in prices, these were only shown for the second quarter of the year and much of output of these produce are seasonal and as such the increase in prices are traditionally expected. For the production of non-traditional commodities, we highlighted the months in which production was highest. If anyone is to reasonably focus on the cycle of agricultural products in Guyana and the various weather patterns we have been experiencing, the conclusion would be drawn that there are no alarming issues in any given manner since produce is available for the local markets and our nation is food secure. However, I must thank Dr. Mc Pherson for recognizing the importance of the Commodity Market Update which is published every quarter by the Ministry of Agriculture and pleased to note the weekly
Commodity Price Update which is published by the Guyana Marketing
Corporation in  Stabroek Business every Friday.

The latter half of the year will also see emphasis being placed on the
rehabilitation of quarantine stations and construction works to the soon to be completed abattoir. Food safety legislation and the upgrade of the pest and disease control regulation will also be finalized this year,
complementing the work of the Plant, Animal Health and Seed legislation
which was recently enacted.

More specifically, in the first half of this year, the sugar industry showed
tentative signs that the path to recovery has commenced. The sector returned a 2011 first crop of 106,871 tonnes, reflecting a 30.5 percent increase over the first crop of 2010 and the best first-crop performance since 2004. The sector’s projected growth for the full year remains unrevised at 35.3 percent.

The rice industry continued its successes of recent years into the first
half of 2011, coming off with a remarkable production performance in 2010. The 2011 first crop rice production at 207,514 tonnes was 23.3 percent higher than the corresponding period in 2010 and the highest first crop in the industry’s history. This growth in production was attributed mainly to significantly improved drainage and irrigation as a result of government investments, the development of a new and more tolerant rice strain by the Guyana Rice Development Board, higher yields and, most importantly, a higher acreage of paddy planted.

Production in the livestock industry was targeted to remain stable through 2011. However, for the first half of the year overall production levels actually increased by 2.7 percent, with increased production evident in areas of poultry meat, table eggs, mutton and beef while pork production declined. As a result, there is a now a higher expectation of the eventual
annual output and the original growth projection has been revised upwards to 0.6 percent.

Further, the sum of $2.6B was spent to strengthen emergency drainage and
irrigation structures countrywide for the first half of 2011. While works
are progressing on the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC), northern
relief structure at Hope Dochfour, where approximately 600 metres of canals have been cleared, a drainage sluice at Cottage and Abary was constructed.
Rehabilitation work to a sluice at Lonsdale, as well as the rehabilitation
and installation of drainage pumps at Greenfield, have commenced.

Additionally, the true growth of the agricultural component of our local
economy and the various subsectors of agriculture are highlighted in the
recently published Mid-Year Report for the Guyana Economy 2011. The Guyanese economy has achieved real economic growth of 5.9 percent in the first half of 2011 and as a result of this positive performance and given the updated outlook for the various productive sectors, the economy is projected to grow by 5.1 percent in 2011. The non-sugar sector is projected to grow at 3.4 percent, revised upward from the original projection of 4.6 percent and 2.8 percent at the time of the budget of 2011.