A critical leadership role
The current global food crisis and the need for an urgent and energetic CARICOM response that seeks to address regional food security underscores the critical importance of Guyana’s agricultural sector to the region’s capacity to feed itself. Serious though the crisis is, there is little doubt that Guyana’s food production capacity can make all the difference to the regional response.
The current regional food security problem, of course, cannot be attributed solely to rising global food prices. Regional Ministers of Agriculture attending the recently concluded COTED meeting in Georgetown have conceded that the community as a whole has, over the years, been less than attentive to the importance of its food security. Intra-regional focus on agricultural production has declined in favour of high volumes of extra-regional food imports and what has brought CARICOM to its senses is the fact that it simply cannot afford the luxury of a US$3b plus annual imported food bill, a belated discovery that surely raises serious questions about the priorities of some, perhaps most member countries.
The opportunity for Guyana to play the lead role in helping the region respond to the consequences of what is, in large measure, its own shortsightedness by taking its own agricultural potential far more seriously is reflected in the attention that is now being paid to what Guyana has to offer. Both the private and public sectors in some member states are now paying close attention to the potential for investment in both joint venture projects in the country’s agricultural sector as well as in land lease arrangements for independent projects. Additionally, the endorsement by the recent COTED forum of the Jagdeo Initiative as the ‘blueprint’ for a regional food security plan that has now become – arguably – the lead item on the CARICOM agenda attests to the central role that Guyana will now be required to play in influencing regional agricultural policy. It is, in the circumstances, a huge responsibility.
