I wish to share my views and highlight some of the ill-informed and misguided statements made by APNU’s Dr. Vernon Mc Pherson in an article published by none other than the Stabroek News on September 2, 2011 entitled ‘APNU accuses Govt. of creating adversity in Agri. Sector’.

I am not disappointed about the statements made by Dr. Mc Pherson as the season is ripe for the main opposition to propagate and spread misinformation to mislead Guyanese into believing that the agriculture sector is in bad shape.

This is expected as APNU is running scared and every attempt is being made to get attention and political mileage, but in the process has exposed the lack of research and poor representation of the facts deliberately to fool Guyanese.

Contrary to what the article seeks to highlight, Guyana’s agriculture has been on a firm footing more than ever over the last few years, despite the global food crisis, increasing fuel prices and climate change as significant funding has been invested in the sector to provide necessary services to farmers and adequate infrastructure as possible. Mc Pherson sought to highlight that organisations such as the FAO, IDB, IFAD, IICA, IMF and the World Bank have been giving generous assistance, but this is only so mainly due to the sound economic policies adopted by the government and the Ministry of Agriculture to manage the resources to empower farmers that feed us everyday. Kudos to all farmers!
It is no surprise that Guyana is the only country within the southern hemisphere that is “food secure”. How could a failing agriculture sector be labelled a food-secure country?
Further, Dr. Mc Pherson went on to state that “farmers are harvesting 72 percent less produce than they did in 2000”;the doctor needs to get his figures correct rather than make comical statements and expose himself.
I agree that there are challenges, but our farmers have always persevered and overcome to change challenges into opportunities. The comment by the goodly Dr. Mc Pherson has only exposed his true identity as one of the many prophets of doom that roam around idly with the PNC/R now APNU.
In concluding, if Dr. Mc Pherson is truly interested in portraying a true reflection of the agriculture sector, I urge that he does so after conducting careful research rather than make statements riddled with half truths and misinformation. But then again, his objective is to mislead the Guyanese people.