Guyana did itself proud in the fight against global hunger

TIMES INT'L

Dear Editor,
I am never surprised by Guyana’s success whenever the topic is food. If ever we are to be short on food, it has to be because of outright laziness or taking things for granted. One person did write about the quantity and types of fruits being wasted in Guyana.
I can attest to this absolute foolishness. We do waste a lot of our farming produce. When it comes to fishes and other water food too, it is the same. I walked by a canal one afternoon after work, and I witnessed a catcher literally scooping the bottom of the habitat for a special species of small fish.
I mean not only was the species small, but the catch was for the babies. He gets a good price, as the export market for this particular fish is very huge. This is wasting of another type and it is more dangerous, seeing as it suffocates procreation.
Guyana is set among some 38 countries that have met internationally established targets in the fight against hunger. This comes long before the deadline set for 2015.
So far, a lot of progress has been made, as hunger worldwide has declined over the past decade or so. However, there is a whole lot more to be done, as some 870 million people are still undernourished, and millions of others are suffering from the consequences of vitamin and mineral deficiencies. The bottom line is that about one-tenth of the world’s people are in want of food.
Hunger across many nations has three basic elements at work: neglect of regular and appropriate agriculture, the ongoing global economic crisis, and the significant increase of food prices in the last several years.
In Guyana, we are kind of immune to these so far, but that does not mean that we must become complacent. We have to continue our agricultural drive and engage in a concerted effort to stop our wasteful ways.
Yours sincerely,
Salome Narine

Related posts