Garlic, potatoes, onions among major food imports last year

Locally cultivated oninons

Between January and September last year the National Plant Protection Organization (NPPO) issued a total of  370 permits for the importation of food crops and vegetation into Guyana.

The NPPO’s parent organization, the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute’s concerns over the ‘importation’ of plant pests that could compromise the country’s agriculture has meant that the authorities here have had to rigidly apply the regulations pertaining to such importation.

The vigilance of the NPPO, an article in the most recent issue of the NAREI publication, Agriculture Today, Our Future says is informed by the high priority which authorities place on national food security, given the possible implications arising out of global trade in plants and plant material for the intrusion of external pests and diseases that can find their way into the country through imported foods.