…to address food management, preservation issues

AN Institute for Food and Nutrition Security has been launched at the University of Guyana with hopes of setting Guyana on the path towards food security; green development and greater agriculture productivity.

The institute will begin functioning in January 2019 with Dr. Dindyal Permaul serving as its Founding Director.

On Thursday at the Arthur Chung Convention Center (ACCC), representatives from university and other local sectors attended the event titled: ‘From farm to Fork: Food and Nutrition Security for the Green State.’

In welcoming the gathering, UG’s Principal and Vice Chancellor, Professor Ivelaw Griffith vouched for the relevance of the institute, stating that it would address Guyana’s food management and preservation issues. “We know that Guyana is a producer of much food in many categories. But when we ‘peel the onion back’ we’ll find that the four pillars around which food security revolves — availability, access, utilisation and stability— we’re not as strong in those pillars as we would like.

“We produce a lot of food but we waste a lot of food because it’s not processed, it’s not canned. The logistics do not enable us to move food from easily across Guyana and beyond Guyana. So there’s an imperative revolving around dealing with the four pillars in way that we have not, as a university, done before,” the professor stated.

He added that it would also help to gather and provide useful information so that policy makers can be guided by “evidence rather than anecdote”; extend education and set Guyana on a “green” development pathway.

“This institute is part of the university’s contribution to the green state of enabling us not to neglect agriculture by doing the instruction, doing the research, by doing the advocacy along with other entities, domestic and international, in that respect,” he said.
Food safety

Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister, Noel Holder in his keynote address, said that the launch of the institute will offer much for the areas of agriculture, health and education.
“As we transform agriculture we must make the shift from lower levels of food safety and handling practices to stringent food safety standards and verifiable logistics management systems. This initiative, through teaching, research and advocacy, will support our private sector as we introduce and increase our sustainable, organic certification and promote more market opportunities for our producers,” he said.

Holder said that if Guyana is to continue increasing its presence in the global market and improve its market access; its focus should be to create a single system which incorporates food safety.

He addressed, too, the relevance of the food safety and stressed the need for Guyana to utilise its impending oil wealth to fuel food security.

“As Guyana emerges as a major oil and gas producer, we must be transformative in our approach to the food system. For changes to be significant we must foster sustainability in all that we do; hence capacity building and training and investment in sustainable agriculture and agri-businesses is important…an institute such as this will aid in understanding the challenges ahead and developing well-targeted policies to help address food security and poverty elimination,” he said.

At the launching, remarks came too from Education Minister, Nicolette Henry, who noted the institute has similar links to the Ministry’s National School Feeding Programme. Some of these she listed as: reducing poverty, promoting good health, improving nutritional status and increasing agriculture production.

“I fully endorse this initiative as an affirmation that the classroom is an essential cornerstone for any approach that is sustainable and capable of bringing lasting change,” she said.

Minister Henry also drew attention to the need to support and develop young

entrepreneurs, while identifying opportunities for innovation in agriculture. She urged: “If we are to effectively create and disseminate knowledge on nutrition for safe, productive and sustainable societies, we need to develop our youth, bring them into the conversation and mechanics as it is the youth who will live with the consequences of hunger, poverty and climate change if these threats are not adequately addressed and mitigated.”
Representative of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Ruben Robertson presented a detailed outline of the financial assistance being provided by the organisation for the institute. To fund a feasibility study, US$50,000 was contributed by the FAO while another US$99,500 was given to conduct socioeconomic studies on the impacts of climate change on the local agriculture sector.

“FAO’s mandate is to ensure that malnourishment; food and nutrition security and hunger are fully addressed,” he said, adding: “We expect that through this partnership, the university will be able to integrate food and nutrition security and climate change in its programmes which over time, will be able to provide the kind of data and evidence-based information that will contribute to informed actions and policies.”