Report on state of food in the Rupununi to inform action

In an effort to help eliminate hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition in Guyana, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) will collaborate with Conservation International Guyana (CIG) over the plight of food insecure persons in the Rupununi district.

During the FAO’s annual accountability seminar held yesterday, CEO of CIG, David Singh said that the collaboration between the two organisations will aim to produce a report of the state of food and agriculture in the Rupununi. He added that this production will be complimented by an economic baseline assessment for the Rupununi. “It will focus a lot on local communities, especially on tourism and agriculture. With this kind of information, we know that we will contribute substantially within Guyana, within the Rupununi and hopefully beyond.” he said.

During the seminar, aimed at informing stakeholders and partner agencies of the changes in FAO, the organisation also revealed a number of activities planned for 2014-2015. These activities focus on specific areas including food security and nutrition, agriculture and rural development, renewable natural resources and climate change, and agriculture health and food safety.

 Stakeholders engaged in FAO’s annual accountability seminar yesterday
Stakeholders engaged in FAO’s annual accountability seminar yesterday

One of these plans, FAO representative in Guyana Lystra Fletcher-Paul said, is the setting up of three cassava demo plots and the training of farmers in production. Two of these demo plots will be small while the third will be large.

In the past year, FAO has worked with the women of rural communities such as Aliki and Kwakwani and has provided them with inputs for the rearing of poultry. FAO also provided technical support to United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for the implementation of the agriculture component of the Amerindian Development Fund project.

On Thursday, a vegetable garden was established at the Ptolemy Reid Rehabilitation Centre for children with disabilities.