Guyana’s food security intact

TIMES INT'L

Dear Editor,
The agriculture minister has said that, if Guyana wants to enhance its economy and ensure food safety, producing meat of better size and quality is vital.
According to him, the way forward is that high quality genetics be utilised, as it will enable local scientists to produce better breeds of animals that are of international standard.
There are many advantages of modern genetics, and this field of study is not in infancy anymore. It goes back to as early as 1939, when the first animal, a rabbit, was conceived by this method.
Artificial Insemination (AI), where cattle breeding is concerned, allows for the specific choice of using the best possible bulls of proven quality, in improving the genetic make- up of the cattle population. Farmers have access to genes from bulls of a quality which they may not individually afford. Frozen semen as we know can be transported globally. Then there is the plus of controlling diseases, potentially devastating to cattle.
Some 14,000 straws of pure bred semen coming in from the United States of America, at a cost of US$ 20 to US $ 30 per straw. Then the specialists at the AI lab at Mon Repos were able to produce 548 new animals so far.
In Qatar, there is the Sahara Forest Project, where plans are ongoing to reduce the country’s heavy reliance on food imports.
Qatar, like other member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), relies heavily on importing food to meet the needs of a growing population.
Officials overseeing the project said they would be capable of building mega plants to generate power, extract fertiliser and desalinate water within three years.
In many African countries, governments try to boost local food production with incentives such as free fertilisers and machinery.
Guyana has gone that extra mile and there must not be any wavering now.
The land quality in Guyana is very amenable to so many activities for food production and the country has the land mass. Guyana should never have to face the issue of food shortages or substandard produce. I eagerly await the unfolding of 2013 in this vein.
Yours truly,
Esther Chichester

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