GUYANA, together with the rest of the Caribbean and Latin America, yesterday reaffirmed commitment to implement initiatives that will see these rich agricultural nations eradicating hunger by 2015. It was done by various country officials represented at the sixth Meeting of the Hunger-Free Initiative for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) which is being hosted here.
The countries were reminded of their diverse and rich agriculture backgrounds and, according to President Donald Ramotar, lack of resources in this regard is, currently, not a problem.
In his address at the forum, in the Guyana International Conference Centre, he said, while the Caribbean and Latin America have enough to feed their  people, a large percentage of the vulnerable community goes to bed hungry each night.
He said this is the challenge and every effort will be made to eliminate this situation.
“We will continue to do our part to ensure the success of the programme…while it’s true that we have made real progress, in the terms of addressing hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean, it is also true that the problem remains one of the biggest issues in our Region,” the President acknowledged.
He noted that, although countries faced with this growing issue have made significant progress, there is, however, more that can be done.
Mr. Ramotar said Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) must applaud themselves for the successes, so far, but they still cannot be satisfied unless hunger and malnutrition are totally eradicated from the Region.
“We are an agriculture rich Region. There is no shortage of food. Latin America and the Caribbean are the largest exporters of food in the world,” he maintained.

UNACCEPTABLE
In this regard, the Head of State said, it is, therefore, unacceptable that more than 50 million people go to bed hungry everyday in this Region.
“We must act urgently to end this problem of hunger and malnutrition,” he appealed.
He said those two factors are indirectly linked to poverty and inequality in LAC and have been a major downfall for many years.
In this context, attending to the high incidence of poverty and reducing the gap between rich and poor in our society are not just interrelated but also demands greater priority nationally, regionally and internationally.
Countries should act on different fronts and platforms in dealing with this issue, he advocated.
Continuing, Mr. Ramotar said: “I’m sure that, when you get down to discussing the topics, you will find many common problems as well as matters related to specific countries… this forum is for everyone to identify the individual platforms on which we, each, will be collectively involved and taking the necessary steps to ensure we put an end to this scourge.”
He said, for far too long, LAC have been characterised by pervasive inequality and unacceptable levels of poverty. In fact, the Region is one of the most unequal regions in the world and this spawns hunger, poverty and malnutrition.
With this in mind, President Ramotar said the crisis of inequality, therefore, cannot be ignored, regardless of the platform on which one is addressing hunger and malnutrition.
He added that, within many societies, there are structures, most of which are the products of intolerable circumstances that constrain economic democracy.
This excludes and marginalises billions and the aim must be to further reinforce global economic relations to deal with the issue in this regard.
According to him, the nature of this relationship takes advantage of the region and perpetuates the gap between the rich and poor.
“This is one of the main reasons why there is such a great need for us to hasten regional integration on the hunger initiative of the Caribbean and Latin America,” he said.
President Ramotar said he believes that, by forging stronger ties, these countries can dedicate more resources towards the feeding of the people while, at the same time safeguarding against exorbitant shocks such as the present economic and financial crisis.
“We have the capacity in Latin America and the Caribbean to produce more food than is required to feed our people. We must ensure that we stand against this potential in a manner that will show equity and equality that will ensure none of our citizens go hungry by 2025. This is a realistic and achievable goal,” he affirmed.
Meanwhile, Agriculture Minster Dr. Leslie Ramsammy challenged the countries to, as part of the initiative, create a society where sisters, brothers, and children can live lives of freedom from hunger and poverty.

UNDERNOURISHED
“As we gather here in Georgetown, Guyana, 52.5 million persons in Latin America and the Caribbean, our sisters and brothers, are undernourished. Many of these persons are our children,” he remarked.
As such, Ramsammy said the meetings are held not only to reaffirm commitment but to discuss a robust way forward to the goal of eliminating hunger in Latin America and the
Caribbean by 2025.
He said food security is one of the world’s key global challenges and, unless the goals set out can be attained, these countries can never meet the food security obligation.
“We will not meet our goals of reducing and eliminating poverty,” the Minister lamented.
He said, indeed, the convergence of increasing population, greater food demand and climate change, with a background of land and water scarcity, energy insecurity, global trade inequities and global financial instabilities represent the perfect storm to take the initiative off course, thus halting the goal of hunger-free by 2025.
He said agriculture has played a critical role in reducing poverty and hunger over the last century and it must continue to play a pivotal part in the pursuit of a hunger-free society.
“For example, we have improved gross world food production from 1.84 billion tons in 1961 to 4.38 billion tons by 2007,” Ramsammy reported.
He informed that the global per capita food availability has increased by 29 percent since 1960. Asia has experienced a 98 percent increase in per capita food availability, while Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has experienced a 61 percent rise. But Africa suffered a decrease in the 1970s and now is at the 1960 level.
Ramsammy said these statistics demonstrate the remarkable capacity of the agriculture sector to meet the demands for food security and reduce poverty around the world.

TRUTH
“But the truth is that, while the world has made remarkable progress in reducing poverty and starvation, pockets of poverty and starvation still exist throughout the world,” he confessed.
Ramsammy said about 52.5 million people are facing serious food security problems.
“Yet LAC possesses the capacity to eliminate poverty and starvation,” he agreed.
According to the Minister, the chronic nature of food security still haunts LAC and it can be seen through increasing population, changing and converging consumption patterns, increasing per capita incomes, growing demand for meats, dairy products, bio-fuels, water and land, among many other things.
He insisted that this Meeting of the Hunger-Free Initiative reaffirms the commitment to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, commit to eliminate the pockets of poverty and hunger by 2025 and ensure that, with a global population reaching 9 billion by 2050, LAC can produce food to feed all of our people and contribute to the global demand for food.
The Hunger-Free Initiative for Latin America and the Caribbean meeting continues through tomorrow. It was initiated several years ago to address production capacity in the Region and to assure that no citizen of the Americas experiences hunger.
The discussions include looking at progress at the national and sub-regional levels to achieve food security and nutrition.
A review of activities undertaken by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation in support of the initiative and examination of governance of the regional sustainable agriculture network are also priorities.
The Hunger-Free Latin America and the Caribbean Initiative Support Project has already begun to implement the component of “strengthening legal frameworks for food security and nutrition”, which will provide technical assistance to seven countries in the Region.