Guyana to benefit from EU boost for agriculture

THE European Union (EU) Intra-African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) Agricultural Policy Programme (APP), for boosting agriculture in Guyana and other CARIFORUM countries, was officially launched last week.
The venue was the boardroom of the Chinese Restaurant at Valpark Shopping Plaza in St. Augustine, Trinidad.The Intra-ACP APP, which aims at promoting the development of small producers and entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector of the 15 CARIFORUM countries, is being funded by the EU with a grant of 8.6 million euros.
The benefitting countries are Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and The Grenadines,

Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.
The end beneficiaries are, among others, small farmers, fisher folk, small scale processors and traders, including organised associations and networks and women and youths.
The launch followed the first formal meeting of the members of the  Project Steering Committee (PSC) and the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) and the signing of partnership agreements between the executing agency the  Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture (IICA) and its partners, the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) and the CARICOM Secretariat.,
Those present on the occasion included Ms. Kathrin Renner, member of the Delegation of the EU to Trinidad and Tobago; Dr. Arlington Chesney, Executive Director of CARDI;  Ms. Desiree Field-Ridley, Officer-in-Charge, Trade and Economic Integration, CARICOM Secretariat; Mr. Gregg Rawlins, IICA representative in Trinidad and Tobago and Coordinator Regional Integration, Caribbean Region; Ms. Kimberley Gay, Coordinating Assistant, Agriculture Professional Development Programme (APDP) in the Trinidad Ministry of Food Production and Permanent Secretary in the Guyana Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. George Jervis.
Also there were staff of the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA) Mr. Lamon Rutten, official of the CARIFORUM Secretariat, Mr. Eugene Petty, other key stakeholders and officials of IICA and more CARIFORUM agencies.

Partnership agreements
Chair of the Proceedings and Project Manager of the Intra-ACP APP Project, Mr. Robert Best disclosed that the signing of the partnership agreements would allow the transfer of the funds provided by the EU to the CARICOM Secretariat and CARDI, so that they can begin their technical activities for the APP project.
The projects are expected to begin in earnest next month and the EU grant is to contribute towards improved policies and incentive regimes and strengthened institutional and development capacity to support productivity and profitability of the Region’s small agri-based producers/entrepreneurs.
This, in turn, is aimed at contributing to the wider development goal of household food security in the Region and the eradication of poverty.
It has been disclosed that the programme to be rolled out over the next four years, comprises of three components namely development of an enabling policy environment; applied technology, research and innovation and entrepreneurship development and local national regional global market linkages.
The CARICOM Secretariat will address enabling policy, CARDI technology development and transfer and IICA enterprise development and linkages to markets
Actions in these components will be tailored directly and specifically towards addressing the development needs of small producers/entrepreneurs.
A number of strategic partners and allies, including public officials in Ministries of Agriculture, Health and Tourism, other key Regional Institutions and Universities will also be engaged, as appropriate and necessary, in actions under the APP.
Guyana’s representative on the PSC, Mr. Jervis told the Guyana Chronicle that there have been lots of plans in the past for the development of agriculture regionally but the problem has been in implementation, largely because of the lack of financial resources.
“What this Intra–ACP APP project managed by IICA seeks to do is to put 8.6M euros for agricultural development in the Caribbean. The three implementing agencies will not give money to individual countries.
“Instead they will go into the various countries and do various things that are needed to take agriculture forward,” he explained.
Jervis said Guyana, like the other States, is going to benefit from the various projects that Government has identified which are still being prioritised with CARDI and IICA and those priority programmes will get tangible assistance from the project.
“There is going to be help with policies, research, planting materials, strengthening organisations and with linking farmers to markets. So there is money in this programme that will help us do quite a few things that we have, in the past, merely been talking about,” he assured.

(by Clifford Stanley)