Dear Editor,

ON September 28, His Excellency, Honourable President of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana. Dr. Irfaan Ali launched his book titled “Achieving Global Food Security: The Caribbean Experience and Beyond” at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford in England.

The book thoroughly examines the existing food security challenges in the Global South (Third World) countries with a special focus on the food security crisis in the Caribbean.

In the book, Dr. Ali highlighted the urgent need to address and solve the pressing food crisis issue in the Caribbean. Brilliantly and cleverly written, the book not only provides a universal and comprehensive overview of the problems, causes and challenges besieging food security globally, especially in the Caribbean, but it also explores a number of strategic policy options, proposals and recommendations to alleviate the problem in the Caribbean and elsewhere.

To say that President Dr. Ali understands the problems and has become a global advocate and leader on the issue of food insecurity and world poverty is an understatement. He wisely and thoughtfully penned the book at a time when the Global South countries including the Caribbean and Latin America, not to mention Africa are faced with the steepest increase in food and other commodity prices which have raised cost of living to its highest level in the region in recent times. The high cost of living coupled with a huge labour shortage in the Caribbean have negatively impacted development in the region

Several scholars have contended that the book is written at a time when agricultural output is on the decline in the Caribbean and elsewhere due in part to inclement weather and in some cases severe man-made disasters. If nothing else,

President Dr. Ali has presented us with a scholarly and practical piece of work that bestowed on the Caribbean and the world a novel and ingenious pathway to increase agricultural production and solve the food security crisis by exploiting the region’s potential for agricultural investment and development.
President Dr. Ali’s heroic work has been applauded and praised by scholars in and out of the Caribbean as a significantly necessary and timely scholarly contribution to food security–one of the most pressing global issues today.

The book provides an in-depth and authentic analysis of the present food scarcity situation faced by the Caribbean as well as an insight into the future if there is not a serious effort to tackle the problem immediately. President Dr. Irfaan Ali issued a clarion call to the leaders of the global community of nations to find a lasting if not a permanent solution to global food security. He told them that it would be a colossal mistake by today’s leaders to leave the problem for future generations to solve.

“Achieving Global Food Security: The Caribbean Experience and Beyond,” reveals President Dr. Ali’s sincere and heartfelt concern for food security and for the poor in the Global South countries who are facing the brunt of the problem.

The book provides a macro-framework of the massive investment in agriculture in the region with the intent to increase agriculture output and thus lower the cost of living.

His groundbreaking work has not only highlighted the food security problems in the CARICOM countries, but it also outlined a series of policy measures to strengthen the region’s food security position.

The book is a bold and ambitious undertaking by the Guyanese leader and will serve as a useful resource for scholars, intellectuals, students and the general public in the Caribbean and elsewhere who are seeking to understand the region and its food security problems.

Beautifully crafted, persuasive and objective, it was a pleasure to read.

Sincerely,
Dr. Asquith Rose.