NOTWITHSTANDING the extensive news coverage given every day to the food crisis in the world, the most important crisis facing the Caribbean is that of the adequacy of food supply. The Honourable Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, drew our attention to this looming problem as early as he assumed office. Years later, the Secretary-General and Guyana FAO uttered grim warnings of an impending food crisis in the Caribbean, and famine rampant, with floods in many parts of the world. The Minister of Agriculture has again warned of a food crisis which will afflict the world throughout and beyond. In anticipation of this problem, and as a vital part of our agriculture development strategy, the minister announced a policy objective of national self-sufficiency in food. In the resolute pursuance of this policy, the Minister announced two things: first, government will restrict the importation of a wide range of food items, which we either did not need, or could produce ourselves; and secondly, it gave top priority to the development of the agricultural sector and authorised a massive increase in investment in that sector.
He said a country which depends for its food supply on external sources is in a vulnerable position, is incapable of guaranteeing its citizens adequate or regular food supplies, and finds it difficult, if not impossible, to exercise an important option of social policy, i.e. regulating and maintaining food prices at reasonable levels. Moreover, such a country is susceptible to serious political pressures from outside.
Apart from the self-sufficiency objective, the policy must be to expand food production for export. In the first place, current projections are that in the years ahead food prices will rise more sharply than oil prices, and the export of food may well be the means by which we will find it possible to meet our importation bills.
We have to give serious consideration to the question of regional food security.  CARICOM countries import billions of EC dollars in food from outside the Region every year. We therefore have a duty to use our agricultural potential to strengthen the food security situation in the Region as a means of promoting stability in the Region and reducing its vulnerability to external pressure.
Given our endowment of extensive and rich agricultural lands, Guyana can once again become the food basket of the Caribbean.