Georgetown: President Donald Ramotar said that there is a growing recognition of the importance of agriculture, which was vital for food security and essential in maintaining the political stability of the community as well as the region as a whole.
Speaking at the Third Caricom-Mexico Summit this week in Mérida, Yucatan, Mexico, President Ramotar reminded the meeting that it was the rise in food prices in Tunisia that had started the crisis which was unfortunately still raging in the Middle East.
Highlighting the challenges which Caricom faced in the agricultural sector, President Ramotar pointed out that despite the many initiatives taken, the Caricom region was still a net importer of food with the food bill amounting to more than US$4 billion per year. He said that it was clear that the region needed a joint agricultural policy through which member states could complement each other and raise their production to reduce the vulnerability in the sector, in the process examining the many problems that have emerged and those that were emerging.
Referring to the impact of climate change on agriculture, President Ramotar cited the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) as a practical example, explaining that since 2004, it was expected that there would be 120 days for land preparation for planting of sugar cane.
“Due to changing weather patterns, the average amount of days per year had been reduced to 80.”
Market access
He said there was also need to have easy access to each other’s markets. However, to accomplish this, it was necessary to improve the transportation links –maritime and air transport. Another task was for the community to jointly work to fight the huge food subsidy by developed countries which results in dumping, thus keeping the countries in a state of dependency.
The Guyanese leader said another challenge was that of making agriculture attractive for young people to become involved. The solution was to introduce more technology into the agriculture sector and for this it was necessary to invest in human resources to produce the modern farmer. The President said that countries of the community must also aim to transform their agricultural products from just being raw materials to agro- industries. This is important to create jobs, both in agriculture and in industry where additional skills would be required and where value would be added.
President Ramotar posited that it was time that the community begin to consider some form of division of labour in agriculture which would help to broaden
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