MINISTER of Agriculture Dr. Leslie Ramsammy has urged the adoption of a value-chain approach to  agricultural development  in Guyana,  saying that the absence of such an approach can lead to  frustration and impoverishment  rather than the development of the sector.

(The term ‘agricultural value chain’ normally refers to the whole range of goods and services necessary for an agricultural product to move from the farm to the final customer or consumer).
Minister Ramsammy said that organisation  of a value chain approach was necessary as it would take into consideration  every    factor impacting on the ability of farmers to access markets profitably.
He made the comments recently while delivering an address to the annual accountability seminar of the local body of the Inter- American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture (IICA).
Listing some negative impacts from the absence of the value chain   approach, Dr. Ramsammy  said that  in recent days  he has had calls from several farmers who didn’t know what to do with the plantains they are producing because the local market for fresh plantain is overwhelmed and  their prices have collapsed.
This  had happened because of the lack of attention to  the   whole range of activities  and services necessary for plantains  to move from the farm to the final consumer- the value chain approach.
He further said: “I  get calls  for agricultural produce  but Guyana even with the rich resources that we have sometimes cannot respond to the calls . So when I get a call for 100 tons of plantain flour we don’t have it right now to meet the demand; when I get a call for 32,000 litres of coconut water every month to supply a super market chain in Europe, we don’t have that amount  to  meet the demand.”
He said  that due to the absence of this approach to agricultural development   it was a scandal that some hinterland  communities  grow cassava and get yields that are  a mere fraction of what was  possible even after interventions by some agricultural development organisations.
He said that all the  talk about increased productivity on a particular product is idle talk unless productivity is seen as part of a value chain for that  product.
He commended IICA  for consistently   working with  the Ministry of Agriculture in  adding value to  the  agriculture sector with the  development of  these chains.
He said that this approach to agricultural development required  a  broader range of interventions from other donor  organisations.
He  urged  these  development organisations   to  re-examine what  they are doing and, if they are not already doing so,  to focus much more on the development and enhancement of agricultural value chains in their assistance programmes than they currently do.

(By Clifford Stanley)