Successful achievement of food security   

By Pat Dial
CONSUMER advocates worldwide and in Guyana, in particular the Guyana Consumers Association, have always promoted food security as well as drug security.

Both food and drug security are important to the well-being and even survival of any community, and two periods in our recent history have sharply reminded us of this truth: (1) During the years of World War II, food imports almost disappeared because of the successful German campaign of destroying merchant shipping. (2) In the 1980s, there was a general non-importation of food from abroad. The food shortages in these periods brought terrible suffering to the population, especially the poor and incapacitated, and underlined how important it was to be as self-sufficient as possible.

Accordingly, in this month of November, this Agriculture Month, food security has been promoted. In the message of the Minister of Agriculture in inaugurating the month, he pledged his government’s support for national food security.

Most Guyanese have a very vague understanding of food security. Indeed, on questioning several people at this time on what is food security, they answered that since rice is a staple and is one of the main elements in the Guyanese diet, promoting a successful rice industry is one of the main activities of achieving and sustaining food security, and it is incumbent on all stakeholders — government and the populace — to ensure the rice industry’s prosperity to avoid the pangs of future privation.

Actually, food security is a much wider concept.  At the World Food Security Summit held in 1996, and at which most of the world’s nations were represented, food security was defined as “when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life.”

This definition is a very general one, and was further refined by pointing out that it included the following: food availability, which is having sufficient quantities of food available on a consistent basis; food access, meaning having a nutritious diet available at easily affordable rates; food use, meaning having knowledge of basic nutrition and easy availability of adequate and clean drinking water and sanitation; availability of marine, such as fish, and animal products, such as meat derived from livestock.

In Guyana, we mostly think of food security from the supply side — food production — and this is indeed the most important aspect of it. But the concept of food security has many ramifications, which need to be addressed if full success could be assured in any programme of food security.

Other ramifications would include, for example, use of modern agricultural methods and technology; scientific research; and continuous programmes of education for farmers and those engaged in fishing and aquaculture and animal husbandry. Improvement in livestock strains and the production of adequate stock feeds must always be at the fore of activities. Even the dissemination of recipes for the various uses of locally-produced foods should be continuously done.

Questions such as the liberalisation of food imports in relation to the survival of local production will have to be resolved. Environmental issues will always have to be considered in all agricultural endeavours; and, probably most important, those who produce food should be ensured a decent living wage.
In achieving any successful programme of National Food Security, therefore, various governmental and private agencies and organisations will have to work in close co-operation and amity.