I would like to endorse the initiative undertaken by the Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with the New Guyana Marketing Corporation (NGMC) in launching the “Grow More” food campaign across Guyana.

I think the government should be lauded for such an initiative which serves to stimulate agriculture diversification and ensure the sustainability of food supply in light of challenges faced locally, coupled with the rising food prices in the region.

What is noteworthy is the fact that the campaign will not only be production oriented but market driven which is an added incentive to farmers.

Guyanese can now benefit from an increased level of production and the support of institutional arrangements for promoting and managing the agricultural diversification strategy.

In addition, the campaign would also serve to increase the capacity of rural producers to efficiently and effectively produce and market non-traditional products and develop small scale enterprises.

During the 1970 era, Guyana under the Former President, Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham experienced a tremendous decline in food production. Even some of the food items that were previously exported had to be imported at times. For instance, in 1976, the target year when Guyana was supposed to have enough food to feed itself, the Government imported 2,000 bags of black-eye peas from the USA, despite massive publicity of large scale production of this commodity at Kimbia on the Berbice River. That same year, too, the government imported 20,000 bags of rice dust (bhusi) from the United States to keep the stock-feed industry going.

This situation continued into the 1980s as well. To the shame of the Guyanese people, the nation was forced in 1982 to import cooking oil from St. Vincent which before 1970 bought cooking oil and copra from Guyana. And no longer was Guyana able to export p1antains, cabbages and pumpkins to the Eastern Caribbean since production of these commodities also slumped.

Food production had declined so greatly by 1976 that consumption of food items per head of the population had dropped drastically to seriously affect the nutritional level of the young children and the population as a whole. The government’s policy of banning essential imported food items compounded this situation. According to a report of the Guyana Consumers Association, in 1976 poultry production amounted to 8 ounces a week per head of the population; eggs were 1 egg per person every 8 days; fish, 14 ounces per person per week; beef, 4 ounces per person per week; and ground provisions, 5 pounds per person per month.

There has been a major transformation in the agricultural sector from then to what it is presently so let us work together as One People, One Nation and One Destiny towards ensuring Guyana remains the “food basket of the Caribbean.”

I am happy to see that the former Prime Minister of St. Vincent could have recognised some of the problems that we in Guyana faced in the past. Our children should be lucky that they do not have to go through these things, when we had to go without flour and other items that were enjoyed by our Caribbean neighbours and we were almost kicked out of CARICOM because of the dictatorship and flawed elections.

Under the dictatorial rule of the then President Burnham, Guyanese were unable to enjoy some of the luxuries that they enjoy now because so many things were curtailed. It was good that the President who succeeded him made a start and lifted the ban on flour or else we would not have been enjoying bread, roti and pastries as we do now and obviously, in many cases take for granted. By the way, I hope that the flour prices do no continue to increase and I am glad that this item was zero-rated. It was a good move by the current authorities. This was an item that was so needed back then but people could not get. This kind of thing should never be allowed to happen again in Guyana.
STEPHEN BERNARD