By Vishani Ragobeer
Vishani@newsroom.gy
Guyana is intent on stepping up its production plans as the Caribbean inches towards its 2025 food security goal and the country’s President Dr. Irfaan Ali outlined several new initiatives that infuse more data and technology into agriculture.
President Ali revealed some of the new initiatives on Friday when he addressed the opening ceremony of the 2023 Agri-Investment Forum and Expo at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre at Liliendaal, Georgetown.
“We are totally committed to the task of ensuring our food system is built in a strong and sustainable way,” he emphasised.
So what are some of these new initiatives?
Dr. Ali highlighted that the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and the Government of Guyana are partnering to create a new “centre of excellence” for young people in Guyana and across the region.
That centre will see the Guyana School of Agriculture (GSA) on the East Coast of Demerara transformed into a more modern facility. There will also be an increased focus on entrepreneurial studies for students at this school, too.
But beyond that centre, a high-tech “situation room” will be built to help farmers and other agricultural stakeholders get access to key data so that they have ready access to information needed to help them with food production.
Be it weather data or soil information, Dr. Ali said farmers in Guyana and across the region will no longer need to wait on engagements with extension officers for information that will influence their production.
“Information is key to the transformation and we are going to make that investment in creating this information platform,” he said.
Additionally, a new programme, in partnership with Canada, will see at least 3,000 young people get “innovative jobs” and “technological jobs” soon.
The Head of State also announced that another new US$4.5 million agriculture innovation programme, being pursued through the Greater Guyana Initiative with funding from ExxonMobil, will be launched at this three-day investment forum.
And these new ventures, the President explained, will tap the skills and enthusiasm of young people and women. In fact, he said efforts are being made to incentivise those groups through special schemes and assistance.
These new initiatives join existing ventures, Dr. Ali reminded the gathering of officials and large groups of schoolchildren.
He pointed out that Guyana has been partnering with other Caribbean nations on ventures to boost trade so that the greater volume of food produced can find markets within the region. An example of this is the highly-touted food terminal in Barbados where food can be transported and traded.
The corn and soya project locally, which will help make Guyana self-sufficient in these products by 2025, was also a venture of great pride for the President.
President Ali is CARICOM’s lead head of government on agriculture and nutrition. And he has been on a mission to galvanise regional and international support for the region’s ambitious food security agenda.
Over the next few days, the forum will bring together investors, farmers, government officials and other stakeholders. Their goal is simple: they all want to grow more food in Guyana and across the Caribbean so that the region doesn’t have to buy more food from abroad.
This is part of CARICOM’s ambitious food goal of slashing its hefty food import bill by about 25 per cent by 2025.
Guyana’s Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha highlighted that Guyana has been doing just that- producing more and importing less- with investments in new and existing agricultural sectors.
