Dear Editor,
One cannot agree more with the pronouncement by the Minister of Agriculture that (like the rest of the Caricom Region) Guyana’s imports are disproportionately high, and showing minimal, if any, immediate prospects of contraction.
The fact is that the Minister did not say anything not patently obvious well before his current tenure. But he may even wish to reflect on his previous life in which the importation of surpluses resulted in a high incidence of expired pharmaceuticals.
In the realm of agriculture, the supermarkets display such imported samples as pigtail, tripe, pork varieties, poultry, and fish varieties.
Now that the Guyana Livestock Development Authority has been established (through lavish donor funding) the latter, which would have taken over the records of its predecessor Crops and Livestock Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, should by now be in a position to advise the Minister of its strategic programme to address this expensive cost component of consumer spending. The strategy should be informed by indices related to the following, preferably by Region:
i) Number and categorisation of farmers/producers in their respective operations
ii) Current volumes and planned production targets
iii) Acreages utilised and identified locations
iv) Specific developmental initiatives eg, resuscitation of ham and bacon factory
v) Status of the aquaculture development – where and productivity rates
vi) The effective research programme of NAREI, and stated objectives
vii) The efficacy of the programmes at the Guyana School of Agriculture, and the utilisation of its graduate skills
viii) The effective involvement of women in agriculture
ix) The development of sustainable agricultural cooperatives as economic entities beneficial to the communities
x) Partnerships/linkages planned or encouraged with relevant private sector agencies, local and external, particularly having regard to import substitution
xi) Market development to encourage production for export
xii) Development and maintenance of an explicit database to facilitate monitoring and reporting on a regional and other bases of comparability
xiii) Review of the oversight role of Regional Executive Officers in the specialist area of agriculture, and on the value added by these relatively under-qualified incumbents
xiv) As an option give consideration to the establishment/expansion of relevant associations to formally represent respective farming/producers’ interests in the various regions; let them be contributors to the strategic plan for reversing the import trends.
Yours faithfully,
E B John
