GUYANA TIMES EDITORIAL - 26th Sept 2013: Talking agriculture September 25, 2013 Guyana is getting ready to host the much anticipated Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA) from October 5 to 12 under the theme, “Linking the Caribbean for Regional Food and Nutrition Security and Rural development.” Already the event is being dubbed as a special CWA, considering the fact that Guyana is looked at as a model in terms of its agricultural practices and its agricultural potential in general. CWA is a collaborative event with the main partners being the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the Caribbean Community (Caricom), the Caribbean Agricultural Research Development Institute (CARDI) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific-European Union (ACP-EU) Technical Centre for Cooperation on Agriculture and Rural Development (CTA). Agriculture and agriculture-related issues continue to dominate the international trade agenda as feeding the world is one of the most important challenges confronting us today, which governments, policymakers, international development partners and citizens as a whole must work to address. Here in Caricom, it is very crucial at this time that the issue of ensuring food security is kept on the front burner, considering the fact that the region’s food import bill is rapidly increasing. This is indeed an opportune time to not only showcase what we here in Guyana are doing, but for the Caribbean to show how it is securing its food and how it is engaging in using agriculture to address other needs. As preparatory activities for the CWA shift into high gear, organisers are confident of a successful event that will push agriculture to the forefront, raise the community’s awareness of the importance of the sector to national and regional development, and create opportunities for greater collaboration and interaction among Caricom member states and with their extra-regional partners. Among the many topics to be explored, CWA workshops will focus on information and communication technologies (ICTs), monitoring and managing pest populations under a changing climate, the development of the coconut industry in the Caribbean, livestock, the implementation and mainstreaming of regional fisheries policies, and agricultural health and food safety. Further, the CWA is being marketed as a great opportunity for promoting agriculture as a business. For the first time, attention will be placed on the cost of production exercise in the agriculture sector. This is an area that is often overlooked. As it currently stands, most farmers do not keep proper documentation and they are not au fait as to what is really happening in terms of their investments and their level of returns. There is need to provide the necessary assistance to farmers as it relates to proper record keeping so that they will know whether they are making a profit or a loss, so that in cases of a loss, corrective steps could be taken. That aside, we hope that stakeholders, both local and regional will take full advantage of the many opportunities the CWA will provide. It will certainly help a great deal in building capacity in the agriculture sector. It is also hoped that a proper follow-up mechanism will be put in place to ensure that the outcomes of the event itself are not lost. In our view, the CWA must not be seen as a one-off event where the technical people meet to discuss issues relating to agriculture, there is need for continuous monitoring and evaluation of what is actually being done on the ground in the farms and fields so that the necessary interventions could be made at the policymaking and other levels. Further, we urge regional governments to go beyond the usual rhetoric and take the appropriate action that will see high levels of investments in the agriculture sector, aimed at modernising, transforming and making it more competitive. Guyana has shown that agriculture is serious business, it is time for others to follow suit.
Posted on: Thu, 26 Sep 2013 12:14:16 +0000
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