THE Government of Guyana is currently working closely with the Trinidad & Tobago administration to help it develop its rice industry, in efforts to reduce its food import bill, Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy recently disclosed.

In an interview with the Guyana Chronicle, Dr Ramsammy said four Trinidadian teams of political and technical representatives have visited Guyana, the most recent group being engineers and agriculture experts.
Dr. Ramsammy said they paid visits to rice mills and fields in Regions 2 (Pomeroon/Supenaam), 3 (Essequibo Islands/West Demerara), 4 (Demerara/Mahaica), 5 (Mahaica/Berbice) and 6 (East Berbice/Corentyne), and learnt extensively about the local industry.
Additionally, they had discussions with personnel from the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) on how it provides stewardship and they also met the Rice Producers Association (RPA) to ascertain how the farmers are represented at the policy level.

TRINIDAD – NO COMPETITOR
The minister said while Guyana is eager to help the twin-island republic, with the development of its rice industry, it does not see Trinidad as a competitor and noted that the sister CARICOM country currently imports the product from here.
According to him, given the lack of land in Trinidad, that country will always be an importer of rice. Although it can produce some amount of the grain, the island will not be able to produce as much as its population requires.
Dr Ramsammy pointed out further, that Trinidad needs some 50,000 to 60,000 tonnes of rice on an annual basis and will only be able to produce an approximate maximum of 10,000 tonnes.

COLLABORATION
He said the Government of Guyana will work to ensure that Trinidad never looks at other places for the supplementary supply of rice it needs.
Moreover, he highlighted that this crop, about 1,000 tonnes of aromatic rice will be produced by 25 farmers and as Guyana  consumes only between one to two tonnes of the specialty grains, it means that other markets would have to be found for the remainder.
He said, in exchange for helping Trinidad with its rice industry, the Guyana Government hopes Trinidad will assist in developing Guyana’s by importing its aromatic variety, which would make Trinidad the first country to import the locally produced type.

The minister recalled that the first group of Trinidad officials who came was led by that country’s Minister of Food Production, Mr. Devant Maharaj and he initiated the dialogue regarding the collaboration of the two countries in agriculture under the Jagdeo Initiative, with the objective of reducing food imports to individual countries and in the Region.
Ramsammy said that importation in the Region is costing approximately US$4 billion per annum and Guyana takes about US$250 per capita of it on an annual basis while Trinidad exceeds US$500 per capita.
“CARICOM is the Region with the highest food import bill and we import many things that we already produce or that we can grow in Guyana,” he observed.
According to Ramsammy, the Trinidadian Minister was convinced that Guyana can help his country reduce its food importation by exporting items to his country so that while it would still import, it does so from a country within the region and by helping it to develop its own rice industry.
In addition, he said they talked about whether the Trinidad government and private sector would take up the offer of former President Bharrat Jagdeo, under the Jagdeo Initiative, to utilise land in Guyana to cultivate food crops to meet the needs of Trinidad and Tobago.
Ramsammy said it was during that visit that a memorandum of understanding was signed between the two countries for cooperation on agriculture, including Guyana’s help with rice production.
He said that trip was followed by another made by the Minister within the Trinidad Food Production Ministry, Mr. Jairam Seemungal, who was able to see many parts of Guyana and had particular interest in its aquaculture.
“Not only for tilapia, since Trinidad was importing substantial amounts of tilapia from China, they were also interested in Guyana’s ability to cultivate hassar in an aquaculture setting, because hassar is a very popular fresh water fish and they wanted to jump start their aquaculture production by obtaining 3,000 adult hassar from our aquaculture setting,” Ramsammy disclosed.

HASSAR PRODUCTION
He said a third team of Trinidadians came only a few weeks ago and was here to observe Guyana’s aquaculture and how hassars are produced here. It was then that arrangements were made for a shipment of 3,000 hassars for the purpose of developing Trinidad’s hassar production.
Ramsammy said that within the next few weeks, he will be leading a political and technical team to Trinidad to discuss, among other things, the issue of reasonable non-tariff barriers.

JAGDEO INITIATIVE IS ALIVE
He said in the past too many people, including some political commentators, had undervalued and criticised the Jagdeo Initiative that was introduced in 2010.
“This collaboration is a good example of how the Jagdeo Initiative is working. We need to highlight the fact that the Jagdeo Initiative is well; it is alive and it is achieving its objectives of bringing the countries together and enhancing agriculture products, so that we reduce our dependency on imports from outside of the Region,” he said.
Ramsammy said Guyana is also going to provide Trinidad with technical support for drainage and irrigation and in return seek to access the research data they have on things like potato and onions.