Agriculture Disaster Risk Management Plan essential in Guyana – Dr Ramsammy

Agriculture Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy acknowledged that since 1999 to present; Guyana has suffered over US$1 billion in losses due to natural disasters. He noted that the 2005 flood alone cost Guyana almost half a billion American dollars. The minister stated that adopting an Agriculture Disaster Risk Management Plan (ADRMP) was therefore essential to guaranteeing Guyana’s preparedness in cases of natural disasters.

Dr Ramsammy stated that the ADRMP was not about waiting for the disaster to occur.
“It is recognising the risk and ensuring that we reduce our risks or eliminate those risks so that the possibility of disaster reduces.”
He further stated that no matter a nation’s best efforts, “no country has been able to totally remove risk so they will never have a disaster”.
The minister stated that while floods and droughts affected the agriculture industry at the highest levels, it was the lesser talked about disasters which continue to devastate crops.
“In developing countries, we tend to underestimate and undervalue the impact of pests and diseases,” he said, pointing out that the illegal procure¬ment of pesticides is a major problem.
Dr Ramsammy stated that there are certain chemicals that are entering Guyana illegally although they are banned. According to the minister, many rice farmers are seemingly unaware when they purchase banned pesticides.
“They procure some of their pesticides from people that offer these things at reduced costs,” he said, noting that farmers need to be advised when a situation seems too good to be true.
“It is a real problem so much so that we have made it part of the Research Rice Centre at Burma to look at chemicals that are circulating around the country,” he said, pointing out that this was a real disaster that was simmering and had the potential to impede growth in the rice industry.
He stated that Region Five farmers are “confronted with the sea water”, citing that Guyana needed to look back to the 1950s and 60s where salt resistant grains were extremely prevalent.
Dr Ramsammy stated that the re-development of salt resistant variations of rice will cost time and money.
“It takes anywhere from seven to 10 years to develop, but we can do it in four years,” Dr Ramsammy said of the projected time frame. He noted that because the Burma facility is a controlled environment, it is plausible that the new variations can be on the market within a shorter time frame.
The minister said in regards to “genetically modified organism (GMO), it is past 10 years since the heads of state brought it to the core and we still don’t have either national or regional policy relating to GMOs”.
Dr Ramsammy noted that the Caribbean needs to stop talking about policy development and begin to initiate a policy that is genetically modified to eliminate misleading information and dangerous imports.
He also stated that above all else, without proper policy, the risk in diluting virile variation is imminent. As a result, the ADRM has the objective of providing a comprehensive approach to preparedness to a variety of hazard groups, including biological, hydrometeorological, technological and geophysical.
The ADRMP in its second presentation to stakeholders on Wednesday at the Regency Hotel sought to outline how it will prevent and mitigate the impact of disasters while improving decision-making capabilities to address disasters more quickly and finally, to integrate financial resource mobilisation.
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) representative Dr Lystra Fletcher-Paul stated that “resources have to be sought to facilitate this implementation”, noting that the ADRMP cannot be just a document that sits on a shelf in the Health Ministry.
She said “this plan is not etched in stone ,it is a living document subject to change” which will require “a system of monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the plan to ensure that it remains relevant, realistic and descriptive” to the needs of the agriculture in Guyana.