As the issue of global food security comes into sharper focus in the wake of the seemingly never-ending food-related crises in some regions of the world which have been accentuated by the Russia/Ukraine hostilities, it is entirely appropriate that we in the Caribbean pay keener attention to our own circumstances. While the region may not be numbered amongst the global ‘basket cases’ insofar as food security is concerned, indications that what is already an unsettling situation in some territories could grow worse are evident. This is precisely why Caribbean governments need to be reminded of their failure, up to this time, to have their now two-year-old 25 x 2025 undertaking properly explained to the people of the region. Where people are not involved they cannot be expected to respond or, for that matter, to participate.
The 25 x 2025 goal cannot be discussed in isolation from the fact that after two years we have nothing to show for it in terms of any meaningful progress. If anything, circumstances over those two ‘lost’ years have illustrated the incurable propensity of Caribbean governments for foot-dragging, and sometimes for simply blowing hot and cold. These are not times when we can continue to look past the deficiencies of our governments and our regional institutions in matters of such profound importance. Too often, too much is left to chance.
Holding regional governments to account in the matter of the 25 x 2025 issue is important for three reasons. First, two years and more after its promulgation, Caribbean governments have failed to have the 25 x 2025 undertaking attended by a thorough region-wide public brief/timetable/road map (preparation of which ought to be assigned to the specialists in the CARICOM Secretariat) to serve as a mechanism with which the people of the region could track the rolling out and ongoing execution of the assignments associated with the realization of the goals of the 25 x 2025 mission. It is that absence of high-level accountability that now leaves us well adrift of the timeline that had been originally set for the actualization of the 25 x 2025 goal.
Secondly, it seems that regional governments have undertaken no serious contemplation of just how the Caribbean as a whole intends to respond to the particular challenges of those CARICOM member states whose contributions to the 25 x 2025 initiative are likely to be limited by force of circumstances, not least, by their obligations to embedded consumer tastes in their respective heavily tourism-dependent territories.
Thirdly, having again, fallen victim to being hopelessly ‘off the pace’ in terms of the realization of its own set targets, it is inevitable that the region will now have to reset the clock on its 25 x 2025 timetable. That would mean a significant adjustment to whatever earlier timelines may have been set for the realization of particular goals; this, at a juncture when, both in the Caribbean and elsewhere, pre-existing food security challenges coupled with the knock-on effects of the further shortages resulting from Russia’s war in Ukraine and the constraints on grain exports from that region would have rendered an already bad situation a good deal worse. Frankly, we can no longer afford to freely forgive our regional governments these excursions into underperformance.
Insofar as we are being told, 25 X 2025 envisages moving the Caribbean into a food security ‘zone’ that requires, among other things, significantly stepped up performances in areas that include agriculture and agro processing. These ‘stepped up’ pursuits will presumably require scaled up technologies as well as qualitative and quantitative enhancements in our food production profiles. These will require significant investments in infrastructure, technology and training. Quite where we in Guyana are, at this time,(or where we plan to go, for that matter) in terms of meeting the demands that will have to be factored into our 25 x 2025, is a matter on which we are unclear at this time.
One is reminded, at this juncture, that the food security ‘ambitions’ of CARICOM member countries go back at least a few decades and that the accomplishments deriving from these ambitions have not gotten too much past the rhetoric. Indeed, there have been instances in which envisaged initiatives have been characterized by un-researched and patently unrealistic projections and predictions which have ‘crashed and burned’ as quickly as they have appeared. When that happens it becomes simply a matter of wasting resources to simply go through the motions.
If, indeed, the region has managed to make its way past the slogan 25 x 2025 and has genuinely gotten the bit between its teeth insofar as a clearly defined strategy is concerned, and this, frankly, is doubtful, then it must share its thoughts with those of us who are going to have to play our own modest roles in helping to roll out the strategy. Since there is little evidence at this time that the requisite mechanisms – including any kind of publicly available conceptual document are readily available – then that is where we need to begin and the sooner the better.
