AT a recent meeting of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Quito Ecuador, the need to focus more on financial mechanisms to target small farming communities and Indigenous peoples was emphasised. This is according to Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha, who participated in the conference. Commenting on the FAO’s new strategy on climate change, Minister Mustapha indicated that these mechanisms should be able to make resources readily and equally available “for smart, small adaptive and uniformed research” given the effects climate change continues to have among vulnerable populations.

There can be no doubt that farmers are more vulnerable to extreme weather patterns as a result of climate change. Fluctuating weather patterns are problems facing a significant number of the world’s population but are much more severe in the low lying countries such as Guyana which is six feet below sea level in coastal areas where most of the population lives.

Only recently, Vice-President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo met with farmers and technical personnel from several coastal regions with a view to examining ways of preventing flood waters form encroaching the land. The conference saw the participation of farmers, engineers and regional officials. According to Dr. Jagdeo, the issue of flooding has to be tackled holistically which would require significant sums of money to mitigate floods and upgrade the drainage and irrigation systems. The Hope Canal, which was built under the PPP/C administration, has proven to be extremely beneficial in terms of mitigating floods on the East Coast. As pointed out by the Vice-President, “If we do not tackle the big issues of water management, every single crop or two crops, we will lose large volumes of our produce and that has not only an impact on the economy, the overall economy of our country, but at the family level often has devastating consequences.”

Millions of people the world over are already suffering from the catastrophic effects of extreme weather patterns exacerbated by climate change ranging from prolonged droughts to devastating floods as happened recently in Guyana. Invariably, it is the farming community that suffers the most during periods of prolonged floods and droughts.

One unfortunate fact about climate change is that it is, to a large extent, caused by human actions. One of the biggest drivers is the burning of fossil fuels — coal, gas and oil — which together, have resulted in a buildup of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. This, along with deforestation, has been a major contributor to extreme weather patterns which affected the lives and livelihoods of a significant number of the world’s population.

Indigenous communities are particularly vulnerable to climate change due in part to their close interrelationship with the natural world and in part to the fact that they live in fragile ecosystems which are particularly sensitive to environmental changes.

The impact of climate change on agriculture has been significant and affects farmers in low-lying developing countries. Agriculture in Guyana has been a significant contributor to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and even as oil and gas is now a major player in the economic life of the country, the PPP/C administration is continuing to emphasise food production within the framework of sustainable development and the country’s low development trajectory.

The PPP/C has been highly proactive in addressing flooding in Guyana and in the leadership positions it has been taking on climate change globally.

As pointed out by Dr. Jagdeo, revenues from the oil and gas will be utilised to strengthen Guyana’s water system. He said that there is a strong need to fix our sea defence system which would require significant sums of money but which is necessary to develop a long-term maintenance plan for the country’s drainage and irrigation network; to maximise land use and agricultural production.

President, Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali has called for immediate actions on all fronts to tackle climate change and has issued a call for world leaders to ensure that this coming decade will be a decade of decisive actions that will tackle the current climate crisis and change the world’s present trajectory.

Guyana is playing its part both at the national and international levels for which the PPP/C administration must be given credit.