Dear Editor,
Growing our own food to feed the nation is not a new concept. If I remember correctly, Forbes Burnham tried to make Guyanese understand that we need to source more goods and services locally rather than relying on overseas goods and services.
There is nothing wrong with producing rice flour. What was wrong was the implementation and marketing of the product. The PNC tried to force Guyanese to adopt rice flour by banning wheaten bread as opposed to letting the demand for rice flour pick up naturally.
Similarly, there is nothing wrong in President David Granger’s assertion that we need to grow plantain and make plantain chips. Where we differ is in the implementation, as I believe that people need to be shown how to make plantain chips on a small commercially viable scale.
There are other cottage industries that can take hold in Guyana. Examples are jams, fruit juices, fruit salads, concrete brick making, honey, etc. But, people need to be shown how to do these things, which is where GO-Invest comes in.
GO-Invest should not only be trying for investment, it should become a “technology demonstrator”, in that it needs to show people how to do things nationally. It can do the necessary research work, then show people how to, say, make jams or concrete bricks.
Mr. President, we are on the same page where cottage industries are concerned just at different paragraphs. Your belief is that just by saying, “grow plantain and make plantain chips”, the unemployed will turn up in their droves to become entrepreneurs.
My understanding is that you need to have a business unit to “show” people how to make plantain chips on a small, commercially viable scale, as the unemployed tend to not have the required skills nor the finances to grow plantain and make plantain chips.
Yours faithfully,
Sean Ori
