Dear Editor,
In observance of Agriculture Month which is from 1st October to 31st October, each and every year, as expected a lot of statements were made, messages sent and activities held throughout the country. The word diversification was often used, and this year a lot of focus was on the coconut industry, which was good.
But I am old enough to know and to remember that since the nineteen sixties, when the late Dr Cheddi Jagan was the Leader of the Opposition, at all his political meetings held on the south Essequibo Coast and elsewhere, he always spoke about diversification of the rice industry. To a great extent, this was with beans, citrus and other fruits, while expanding our ground provisions, vegetables and cash crops that we were cultivating ‒ not forgetting our dairy farm and pig rearing, as well as our livestock and poultry farming.
Fifty years later, the message remains the same from many other persons, but the big question is how far down that road have we travelled from then to now; are we as a nation satisfied with the progress we have made in the agriculture sector? The answer should and must be a resounding, No.
Year after year, October after October, the messages from our Head of State, our Prime Minister, our Minister of Agriculture and our senior agriculture officials, apart from the change of venue, remain the same or similar.
Mr Freddie Kissoon was perfectly right when he said that the evidence of our failure in the agriculture sector where production, processing, packing, canning and bottling is concerned, is on the shelves at the many supermarkets across our country, because the cans, bottles, packets and boxes with markings or tables that say made in Guyana are very few. We are importing several times more food and beverages, than we are exporting.
Once described as the ‘breadbasket of the Caribbean’, a tag any nation would be proud of, we have voluntarily relinquished that title and we seem to be happy.
While I don’t want to be seen or described as a pessimist, it is important that I mention some of the facilities that were commissioned for the sole purpose of agriculture related activities, and after a short period of time the doors were closed or they were used for other purposes. The Supenaam Marketing Centre , the Charity Marketing Centre, and the Fish Port both at Lima and Charity have been privatized.
The Marketing Centre at Parika is used for purposes it was not intended for, as well as what was touted to be the biggest prize for the farmers, the processing and packing facility at Parika, a building you all would know travelling through Parika, because of its size and location and the length of the wharf; you can’t miss this facility.
What can we the people of this country do to have this negative trend in the agriculture sector reversed?
Yours faithfully,
Archie W Cordis
