TRINIDADIAN Dr. Arlington Chesney, Executive Director of the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), has highlighted the opportunities Guyana offers the Caribbean in terms of food security, thus endorsing Guyana’s capacity as the food basket of the region.

Those comments came from the leading agriculturist after a partnership arrangement was announced between Guyana and Trinidad for the creation of a ‘food security facility’, with hopes of stimulating agricultural and livestock production.
That facility also seeks to reduce dependence on foreign food imports, while stimulating the regional drive for food security in the Caribbean community.
While presenting Trinidad & Tobago’s National Budget for 2013 last Monday in the National Assembly, new Finance Minister Larry Howai announced the food security facility entered into with Guyana.
And Agriculture Minister, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, during a telephone interview with the state media, spoke of a draft Food Security Bill that is currently before Cabinet, but is expected to be tabled in Parliament before the end of 2012.
Dr. Ramsammy said Guyana is currently producing enough to feed its people, and is looking at, and has set mechanisms in place towards producing more for exports.
He said the Food Security Bill seeks to ensure that food produced locally is of high quality and is uncontaminated.
A study conducted by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has shown that, apart from Guyana, Belize and St Kitts and Nevis, no other CARICOM country has the required land mass to achieve 100 per cent food security.
Apart from welcoming the food facility arrangement, Dr Chesney highlighted the limitations of a majority of CARICOM countries, including Trinidad and Tobago; thereby emphasizing the crucial role Guyana and Suriname, with their abundant acreages, can play in a collective regional initiative to respond to the challenge of food security.
Trinidad’s partnership with Guyana in this food security facility is also being hailed as “good news” for farming communities, commercial sectors, as well as consumers with a passion for Caribbean commodities.