–Minister Mustapha says, rejects opposition’s criticisms of sector
WITH Guyana successfully repositioning itself as the leading force in regional food security since 2020, Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha has strongly rejected the opposition’s criticisms regarding the performance of the agricultural sector.
The minister during a recent airing of the ‘Starting Point’ podcast, issued a sharp rebuke to opposition critics stating that they have no clue what is happening as it relates to agriculture and blasted them for ignoring the significant strides made.
He emphasised that Guyana now sits at the forefront of food production in the Caribbean, crediting President, Dr. Irfaan Ali’s prudent leadership following those previous years of steep decline.
“Let me be very frank with you, Guyana is leading the agriculture sector in the Caribbean,” the minister said.
Although historically Guyana always led regional food security, the minister stated that the nation lost its footing and placing from 2015-2020, the period when the A Partnership for National Unity+ Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) held office.
Minister Mustapha noted that President Ali has reclaimed Guyana’s leadership position in agriculture and food security, pointing to Dr Ali’s ambitious plan to reduce the Caribbean’s food-import bill, a target which has since become the cornerstone of CARICOM’s development agenda.
“He [President Ali] has not only taken up back responsibility for agriculture and food security, but he has also developed strategy now, for the first time in the history of CARICOM, we see the political will for CARICOM to adopt those strategies that was [sic] put forward by President Ali. We saw President Ali put forward the position of reducing the food-import bill by 25 per cent and we have moved significantly in reducing that bill,” the minister said.
The minister further stated that those “naysayers and doomsayers” would not want to recognise Guyana’s pivotal role in CARICOM.
As the chair of the CARICOM Special Ministerial Task Force on Food Production and Food Security, the minister said that the ideas and strategies that Guyana puts forth are welcomed by Caribbean counterparts and adopted because they know “without Guyana they cannot achieve this reduction of the food input.”
“They trust our leadership, and they’re looking forward for us to build the capacity in their country,” Minister Mustapha said.
Beyond policy leadership, the minister outlined Guyana’s technical support to fellow Caribbean nations seeking to strengthen their agricultural sectors.
For instance, previously Barbados’ main economic pillar was tourism, Minister Mustapha said the island is now embracing agriculture and Guyana has already deployed technical officers to help them to transform their agricultural sector.
He also noted that Guyana played a major role in resuscitating the rice industry in Trinidad and Tobago.
“Last year, they started [to] produce back the rice. I am helping them to develop their coconut industry. Places like Grenada, Antigua, Saint Lucia, all those areas, our technical officer went and we built shade house for them,” he said.
