Former President Bharrat Jagdeo this week called on Caricom leaders to do much more to deal with the declining agricultural production of the region, as well as to curb the impact of climate change.
Addressing the launch of the Faculties of Food and Agriculture and Science and Technology at the St Augustine Campus of the University of the West Indies, Jagdeo, after whom a regional agricultural plan was named, said in only three Caricom countries have agriculture contributed more than 10 per cent of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The Caribbean has a food import bill of US$4 billion, and Jagdeo noted that there was a decline in the budgetary allocation for agriculture in regional countries and the employment opportunities in the sector had also declined.
Jagdeo told the launch that clearly something must be wrong if there can be so much academic success and achievement at the University and the policymakers appear not to be focusing enough on the issue, adding that something must be urgently done to give agriculture the priority it needs.
“There isn’t a sense of urgency and that is what we need today, a sense of urgency among our policy makers. Maybe we should have term limits for the entire Caribbean. And then policymakers may know that you only have a small period to achieve what you want to,” said Jagdeo.
The former President said the region was also not meeting the international requirements to deal with the issue of climate change and that regional leaders have not done what is required to address the issue.
“We have been struggling in Caricom to get this issue on the agenda for ages and for our leaders to pay attention to the existential threat that it poses for our region and the threat that it poses for our way of life and social welfare and economic development.
“Yet we can only respond and we seem to develop a sense of urgency only when we are struck with a hurricane and for two months after that every leader talks about climate change and then we forget it,” he said, adding that the “same thing has happened in the area of agriculture”.
Jagdeo noted that in 2008 when there were significant price increases in commodities globally, every regional leader accepted that it was a political issue and there was some urgency in dealing with the matter. But he said when the prices abated, “we lost interest again”.
The “Jagdeo Initiative” identifies and defines the key constraints facing agricultural development in the Caribbean region. The ‘new agriculture vision’ aims at making the sector about more than the production of food by exploring the numerous opportunities that exist for agro-businesses which will create more employment, increase export earnings and the income of all stakeholders especially farmers.
The initiative has been endorsed throughout the Caribbean for its thorough analysis of the state of agriculture, its hard look at internal and external factors, and for deepening the discussion of fundamental areas that need improvement, reform and/or initiation.
Limited financing and inadequate new investments, outdated and inefficient agricultural health and food safety systems, inadequate research and development, and fragmented and unorganised private sector are some of the constraints identified.
Insufficient land and water distribution and management systems, deficient and uncoordinated risk management measures, and inadequate transport systems are other elements outlined in the initiative.
In pursuing the “Jagdeo Initiative”, several interventions were made by the Government of Guyana to help realise the country’s agricultural potential. At present, a chain of activities is being undertaken in this direction.
This includes the new extension services programme that entails several components aimed at aiding cultivation and production, implementation of new technologies and research.
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