Ignatius Jean
While there has been much talk surrounding the growing food importation bill of CARICOM, Guyana’s Agriculture Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy said this issue could be addressed only if all members states work to exchange agricultural produce, rather than importing from outside the region.
Dr Ramsammy made this comment while delivering the feature address at the launch of the Caribbean Agricultural Extension Providers Network (CAEPNet) last week at the Guyana International Conference Centre, Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown. Dr Ramsammy said Guyana alone has the capacity to produce enough rice to be sold to the entire region.
He noted that many countries within the region are heavy food importers, even though many of the foods imported are produced within the region. The minister believes that this issue could be addressed, creating positive growth and wealth for the region.
Import substitution is being examined in an effort to reduce the region’s food import bill. Information suggests that the region’s food import bill stands at some US$4.5 billion.
Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) representative Ignatius Jean said efforts are being made to address the situation.
Jamaica, he said, is moving in this direction, as that country has recognised that agriculture can be an ATM for generating economic growth and reducing debt.
The country has begun to examine how it can substitute some of its imports.
“What they have done is assess their situation as to ascertain the foods they have been importing and to match that against what can be produced in the country,” he stated.
Jean explained that the Jamaican government created a strategy towards developing about nine or 12 agro-parks. The government is putting in infrastructure like roads, irrigation, drainage and technical support services and would lease the lands to some of the private sector companies to grow crops that will match the imports.
Further, the government’s local private sector companies are looking to cut the import bill of grains used to manufacture animal feed. Already, cassava is being looked at to be used as feed for livestock as well as sorghum. One company, Caribbean Broilers, is looking at producing sorghum with an initial start of cultivating 100 acres, with the aim of increasing it to 700 acres.
But there remains one issue. Are countries willing to spend extra to grow more locally? Jean said, “To position yourself if you have a worst case scenario and boats cannot come to the Caribbean, what do you do, it’s one thing to look at import substitution, but we will not be able to substitute some products, there are some products we will never be able to produce, but there are some things we can do.”
Among the issues being examined at the Caribbean Week of Agriculture is the region’s ability to network to make the best of food produced locally, the challenges of transportation in the region and other challenges being faced.
