The Guyana School of Agriculture (GSA) conducted a one-day training session on cooperatives, last Monday, as part of its Agriculture Month 2012 activities.
It took place as World Food Day, this year, paid tribute to co-ops around the world and in keeping with the theme ‘Co-ops – the key to food security’. Addressing the seminar participants, Agriculture Minister Dr. Leslie Ramsammy said, in choosing the theme, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) acted in congruence with the fact that the UN is celebrating 2012 as the Year of Co-ops.  
He recalled that, in October 2011, the UN, in Resolution 64/136,had declared 2012 the International Year of Co-operatives.
According to him, the UN made the declaration  on the basis of the premise that co-operative enterprises build a better world.
He said the UN has concluded that co-ops are significant and effective vehicles towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), particularly MDG number one, which calls for the reduction of poverty rates by half by 2015 as compared to 1990.
Ramsammy continued: “As we celebrate and acknowledge the contributions of co-ops around the world, we must commit ourselves in Guyana and around the world to ensuring that co-ops are given the space and are empowered to play a role in providing livelihoods and sustainable living for people.”  
He said, as a country, Guyana has been a nation that embraced the notion that co-ops are enterprises that build a better world.
“We have a long history of co-operatives; some will say a long history of flirting with co-ops without ever really committing ourselves to the ideals of cooperativism,” the minister observed.

COMMITMENT
He acknowledged that Guyana’s history with co-ops is one of ups and downs but, indeed, the country’s name ‘Co-operative Republic of Guyana’ enshrines its commitment to co-operatives.
“We established a Co-op Bank in the 70s. We also established a Co-op College – the Kuru Kuru Co-op College,” Ramsammy remembered.
He alluded to the experiences of the 1970s and 1980s and pointed, frankly, to the mismanagement of some co-ops today, which left a trail of stigma to be addressed.
Ramsammy argued that, despite the sour history with co-ops in Guyana, there are some success stories coming out of the establishment of others.
“While there are some good reasons for holding co-ops in a bad light in Guyana, we must be careful not to discard the baby with the bathwater,” he cautioned.
Ramsammy highlighted one of the good examples of co-ops in Guyana, as including the credit unions which, he said, are very good examples of how co-ops can make lives better.
He said there is also the example of the Mangrove Women who got together and established a packaging and processing company to process and package pepper sauce and other condiments.
Ramsammy maintained that, in Guyana, there is an economic, political, legal and administrative environment which is conducive to the development of genuine, self-reliant and autonomous co-operatives and similar organisations which can greatly contribute to job creation and the empowerment of the poorest.
This opportunity must be seized, he urged, adding:             “There are some good examples of co-ops working in Guyana to better lives. And I would hope that we could assist others to adopt progressive policies to benefit all members.”
Turning his attention to one of the largest economic investments in the country, the Skeldon Sugar Factory Modernisation,  he said it is expected that private farmers, particularly those in co-ops, would contribute more than 1.6 million tons of sugar cane for it.
He said that is a concrete example of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government embracing the contribution of the private sector and also the space it is creating for the co-ops.

PRIDE
“While the government could take pride in the many things we have done to support co-ops, like allocating hundreds of acres of land for co-op development, we must also recognise that we have not established a strong, regulatory framework to support co-ops in Guyana,” he admitted.
Ramsammy emphasised that support cannot be given to the co-ops with a one-man co-op unit at the Ministry of Labour and the country must seek to strengthen the co-op regulatory framework and ensure a strong and well-resourced co-op unit that could provide oversight for co-ops.
Unless this is done, the minister said, the country will not be able to stop some of the unsavoury things from which co-ops suffer today.
He said many co-ops have no accountability framework and are dominated by one or a few members. The intent of co-ops that everyone benefit equitably and equally are principles practised in the breach.
This situation must be corrected and he mentioned that there are co-ops where small groups have seized control and operate them for the benefit of a few and exclude the vast majority of members.
In his view, this has resulted from poor supervision and lack of timely oversight and, for this, government must take the blame and find a solution to this problem now.
             
OPPORTUNITIES
Ramsammy said there are bountiful opportunities for co-ops to succeed in Guyana, in agriculture, cash  crops, rice, sugar and fishing and hou
sing and credit unions.
He said while these abound, Guyana tends to ignore the role of co-ops to contribute to the development of these areas at its peril.
The minister insisted that the lessons around the world are that co-ops do work and can be an effective vehicle to address poverty reduction.
Cooperatives can be an important channel for bridging market and human values, he posited.
Ramsammy said, set within an agreed framework for inclusive growth, co-operative ideals and organisation can be  effective vehicles in meeting their people-centred objectives.
He argued that co-operatives offer a dynamic and flexible model of business, whether in production, marketing or service delivery from health care to housing and education and training.
As ethical organisations, they are also well placed to advance environmental objectives, he preached, warning that Guyana should not turn its back on co-operativism but commit to create a dynamic co-operative movement that embraces the best practices which abound throughout the country and the world.
“I look forward to seeing co-ops playing the role we once envisaged for them. I would hope that we can dream that the next generation of Guyanese can look forward to living in a developed country right here,” Ramsammy said.