The following is the full text of a statement from the Ministry of Agriculture in response to the Kaieteur News editorial of September 27:
“Firstly, I wish to draw the writer’s attention to the Ministry of Finance’s 2024 Mid-Year report which stated that Guyana’s non-oil growth was estimated at 11.8 per cent for the first half of the year.
The report also further stated that the agriculture, forestry, and fishing sector is estimated to have grown by 8.7 per cent.

Over the last four years, the government has been resolute in its commitment to alleviating financial burdens and improving the standard of living for Guyanese. As such, the government has implemented a suite of deliberate initiatives and policies to address the impact of higher commodity prices globally.
The rise in food prices and the costs of transportation, goods, and services resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine war, and other disruptions. At home, we were challenged by unprecedented floods in 2021, and El Niño conditions that began in the second half of 2023 and continued through to April 2024.

Since the government assumed office in August 2020, National Budgets have been designed to target several critical areas including the cost of food locally and access to affordable and healthy food.
This year’s Budget committed over $70 billion to sustain the government’s efforts to increase the disposable income available to citizens while ensuring their improved standard of living.
Significant investments have been made in agriculture, infrastructure, health, education, social services, and housing.

While for the first half of 2024, food prices were impacted by a combination of domestic and global factors, the government proactively implemented measures to reduce the cost of production and cushion the cost of living and will continue to do so throughout the year. In fact, the government has already engaged farmers to explore ways of directly reaching consumers in an effort to continue to contain food prices.

Only recently, while addressing a ministerial panel at the high-level dialogue, Minister Zulfikar Mustapha announced that according to the SOFI 2024 report, undernourishment in Guyana has fallen below 2.5 per cent, a figure well below the regional average of 6.6 per cent and the global average of 9.1 per cent.
This achievement resulted from deliberate policy interventions aimed at enhancing food production and improving access to nutritious food in Guyana.
Saying that Guyanese are ‘crying for help to buy basic food items’ and ‘living in a half-starved condition’ is grossly inaccurate. What remains a fact is that the government through the Ministry of Agriculture is now looking to improve its agro-processing capabilities. This is the vision of H.E. President Irfaan Ali and Minister of Agriculture, Hon. Zulfikar Mustapha.
If we are to refer to a time when Guyanese were crying for help to buy basic food items and living in a half-starved condition, then we must reference the 1982 New York Times article titled ‘GUYANA’S ECONOMY IN A SEVERE CRISIS’ https://www.nytimes.com/1982/10/03/world/guyana-s-economy-in-a-severe-crisis.html.

The article stated that the abruptness with which the economic crisis has overtaken day-to-day life in Guyana had left many people frustrated and fuming.
The government banned the importation of dozens of items that had long been a part of Guyanese life. These include preserved foods, fruit, and split peas. Other staples, such as wheat used for flour, had disappeared.
The country’s net international reserves were said to be $250 million in the red. In addition to banning those basic items, citizens had to line up for many hours at government stores to purchase what were already scarce goods such as cooking oil and powdered milk and the housewives were complaining that the prices of available items had soared.

Mr. Editor, these are different times, and while countries all over the world are faced with food insecurity challenges, the Government of Guyana has done a commendable job of ensuring Guyanese have access to adequate and healthy food.”