–PM encourages farmers to diversify, try horticulture

FRESH from a State visit to Tamil Nadu where he’s seen it being done successfully, Prime Minister Mr Moses Nagamootoo is now encouraging local women to become heavily involved in the cut-flower business.
“People sell garlands with fresh flowers and bouquets at every street corner, at every temple, outside every hotel, outside every business place,” he said.
“I want to also encourage Guyanese farmers, our Guyanese women who cultivate their gardens, their kitchen gardens or even the front of their yards that they should grow those types of flowers that can be sold, and not simply given away… It is a commodity,” he told his audience Sunday at an exhibition held in Mahaicony to mark World Food Day.
He was particularly high in praise for the effort being made by some local producers to bring the labelling and packaging of their products on par with international standards, saying that where before labels read ‘Grown in Guyana’, they’re now proudly proclaiming, ‘Made in Guyana’.
“We are bursting out from the nutshell of colonial confinement that told us that what we produced was not good enough for our body and for our beauty,” he said, adding that packaging has also improved significantly in the rice industry, he said, as evidenced by the display of Guyana’s rice on the shelves of supermarkets throughout the Caribbean and even further afield.
The prime minister said he is particularly proud of the fact that they were able to achieve all this in spite of the major challenges facing the industry, mainly as a result of the loss of the Venezuelan market.

‘We are bursting out from the nutshell of colonial confinement that told us that what we produced was not good enough for our body and for our beauty’ — Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo

“Packaging has improved considerably through the efforts of some large-scale millers and producers… Rice is a base commodity, and we need to also focus on value-added products,” he said, adding that for decades, such by-products as rice cereals, biscuits, ice-cream and other bi-products have been popular on the international market, to the extent that some countries even import Guyana’s rice on a large scale, and further produce biscuits for their own export.

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He recalled meeting a delegation from Chile, which had a keen interest in Guyana’s rice as raw material to boost its own economy through the production and marketing of a particular product.
“They want to use our rice to convert it into biscuit, which they will export to Japan, where they have no tariff that will prevent them from exporting the biscuit,” he said, adding:
“So, Guyana sells bulk rice, and the value- added profits will go elsewhere. It is time that we make our own biscuits in Guyana, and find the market for the biscuits made from rice.”
The Prime Minister said Guyana must use as an example the development path taken by other countries, and diversify its economy.
“Only diversification can save sugar and the workers’ livelihood,” he said.
But in order for this to be fulfilled, he said Guyanese will need to desist from seeing agriculture as a part-time business, and venture into large-scale cultivation.
Nagamootoo said his recent experience in Tamil Nadu, in India has confirmed his belief that Guyana’s agriculture sector has the potential to be self-sustainable. The cuisine in India reflected true sustainable development within its agriculture sector.
“I can’t remember when last I ate rice for breakfast. I’m a lover of rice; I was surprised I was eating rice every morning; it is a necessary part of the cuisine in all hotels… Everything, from biscuits to ice-cream had a rice flavour,” Nagamootoo said.
According to Wikipedia, “India is one of the world’s largest producers of white and brown rice, accounting for 20% of all world rice production. Rice is India’s pre-eminent crop, and is the staple food of the people of the eastern and southern parts of the country.”
Fresh juices flavoured with fruits, many similar to those farmed in Guyana, were part of every cuisine.
“As part of the cuisine of the hotels and anywhere you go, along the street corners, you have these fresh juices and fresh water coconuts,” he said, adding:
“No meal was complete without locally-grown vegetables.”
In Tamil Nadu, a state populated by millions, is self-sustainable.
“Tamil Nadu, with a population of 75 million people, is feeding itself from the produce of local farmers; it is feeding itself, and it is feeding tourists and visitors, with pride, with what it produces. Farmers are among the most prosperous people.”