- says US$3B of food export opportunities in the region- as pig breeding project launched

Georgetown, GINA, April 7, 2008

President Bharrat Jagdeo, in stressing the importance of food security to the region currently and the critical issue of food shortages beginning to be experienced by some Caribbean Community (CARICOM) territories, told farmers today that there is US$3B in food export opportunities in the region.
The President was delivering the feature address during the launching ceremony of the national pig-breeding programme, a joint effort between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Guyana Defence Force (GDF). The ceremony took place at the GDF’s farm, Garden of Eden, East Bank Demerara.
“Today, we import in excess of US $3B of food into the Caribbean. We’re the only net exporter of food in this region. So, that’s US$3B of opportunities, US$3B of hard earned money that we in this region have to take to bring food from outside the region to satisfy the region when we can produce just here,” the President stressed. He emphasised that CARICOM has now recognised the critical role agriculture plays in the region and is planning to use Guyana’s lands to increase production for Caribbean territories.
“For a very long time across the region, little funding was put to the agricultural sector and very few requests that went to the multilateral financial institutions were for agriculture. Only Guyana and a few other countries had requests for loans from these institutions for the agricultural sector,” he said, adding that since, besides Guyana, agriculture only contributed little to other CARICOM territories, Guyana had an uphill task trying to renew the commitment to the agricultural sector in the region.
President Jagdeo is the Head of Government responsible for the agricultural sector in the region and said he had told CARICOM Leaders about the important role of agriculture some time ago and the need to put more emphasis on the sector. However, he noted that many countries preferred to focus on tourism as this contributed more to their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of their economies.
The President pointed out that now times have changed and some of the countries are beginning to experience food shortages as a result of the escalating cost for food items. He alluded to last week’s looting of food trucks in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) and recent food riots in Haiti.
“We’ve had food riots in the world in more than 15 countries now. Even when they have the money there is no food to buy,” the Guyanese Leader said. He also alluded to the fact that many countries worldwide have begun to cut their exports of certain commodities to keep food for their local populations.
“We pointed out that food security is vital to the region, that you can’t eat tourism. Tourism may contribute a lot to employment but if this region does not have food security or a competitive agricultural sector, our exporting agricultural sector will die because we can’t compete with the rest of the world and our domestic production will be displaced by imports as has already happened in many of the countries,” President Jagdeo explained, reminding the gathering of his earlier concerns raised at CARICOM fora.
He stated that upon examining studies done previously over a number of years in the agricultural sector which he said was referred to both in the original Treaty of Chaguaramas and the revised Treaty of Chaguaramas established by CARICOM, that much of the studies to advance the agricultural sector under the two Treaties were done largely to infer trade negotiators as to how to probably safeguard preferences, rather than to improve production and to develop production from that perspective.
In this light, he said he recognised that there was need for a shift of focus and thus, the Jagdeo Initiative was derived. This has now been adopted by CARICOM.
“So, we have to come up with a strategy here in Guyana to ensure that it does not adversely affect our people… their quality of life,” the President stated.
He disclosed that a special committee has been set up at Cabinet level to look at the specifics of the issue and the situation in the country following which, Government will determine how it will intervene.
“….that we safeguard first of all, supplies, and secondly, we ameliorate prices, if not directly, through some additional measures,” President Jagdeo said at the forum.
Already, the situation of the shortage of ‘fine rice’ to supply the livestock industry is being examined, in the face of corn which is also used for that purpose, significantly increasing in price.
“We have seen significant increases in the price of chicken and other meat. This is a worldwide phenomenon…. we can create the employment here and the opportunities here to supply CARICOM with food. In the swine industry, it’s about US $30M that they spend on importing pork into the region. If we get 10 percent of that from these efforts, that’s significant. We can target this market,” the President told farmers.
He reminded that agriculture is not a new found commitment in Guyana, but is something that has always been practiced in the country, adding that diversification on a large scale is what is needed now.
“There are so many things that we can do. We can create a thriving ethanol industry, a soya bean industry and agro processing, because we need to convert some of what we produce into some manufactured goods, like canning etcetera,” the Head of State said.
He pointed to lending agencies’ focus on Phyto-sanitary standards rather than on production and giving support to producers.
On this note, he told farmers that Government will not be waiting any longer on loans but will be using funds from its budget to support the expansion of production.
Meanwhile, Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud told farmers at the forum that he hopes that they will make full use of the opportunity to improve the genetic stock of pigs they will be able to breed. Farmers in various regions countrywide will be supplied with the pigs. Many were already at the forum eagerly awaiting their turn to uplift their pigs.
The Minister noted that his Ministry is not only making efforts to revitalise the pig industry, but also the cattle and other industries. He also pointed out that it is the first time in thirty years that new material is being added to the pig industry.
“We have other programmes that we’re going to be extending at the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) in terms of ducks, sheep, goats, so we’re working with the private sector in terms of improving the genetic improvement of the cattle industry….and through our Ministry’s programme, genetic improvement both in dairy and in beef and we will continue that effort especially as we look at the price of milk on the international market,” the Minister stated.
Acting Chief of Staff of the GDF Colonel Bruce Lovell also addressed the gathering and pointed out that through the programme, farmers countrywide will have access to quality breeding stock and supporting technology.
He thanked the Agriculture Ministry for its involvement in the project and noted that it is the second project in which the GDF and the Ministry have collaborated. The first was the anti-piracy project.
“Some may well wonder at the Army’s involvement in a swine breeding project. To them I say-this project helps us to fulfill one of our three main roles-that of being able to contribute to the economic development of this country. The other two roles we are mandated to perform are providing for the country’s external defence and assisting the civil powers in ensuring internal stability,” Lovell stressed.
Following addresses by the officials, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Agriculture Ministry and the GDF while the President toured the pig breeding area on the farm.