Georgetown: Cognizant of the fact that the work of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) has aided in the growing of Agriculture in the Region, Agriculture Minister Dr. Ramsammy made a call for stronger collaboration among international organisations and donor agencies if Agriculture is to be further advanced.
He made this call during IICA’s 2014 Accountability Seminar which was held at the Regency Suites during which several project initiatives of the Institute were highlighted.
Underscoring the role the institute continues to play in Guyana’s development; Minister Ramsammy spoke of the importance of Food and Nutrition Security and its place in the agriculture system.
“If we work together we would achieve the goal of hunger free nations and a hunger free Region by 2025….our failure to work together remains the biggest impediment to ending hunger in the Region” he Minister said.
The Agriculture Minister welcomed the opportunity to work with IICA at the regional and national levels to effectively address the issue of Climate Change, noting that as a country systems must be put in place to ensure that the effects of Climate Change does not affect the advancement of agriculture.
One of the impediments any country must address if is ability to effectively manage water. IICA has made this a regional priority- a move welcomed by the Agriculture Minister.
“Indeed managing water is critical and remains a priority in Agriculture and therefore we (Government) look forward to working with IICA even as a National Programme has been developed to managing water,” Minister Ramsammy said.
The importance of value chain within the sector was also highlighted by the Agriculture Minister who noted that the latter remains a critical component if the country agriculture is going to advance and generate wealth.
In this regard, he called on all within the sector to play their part if the region is to reduce its importation bill which currently stands at a whooping US$ 5.2B
Meanwhile, the institute’s Technical Cooperation over the last two years and its New medium-term plan was highlighted by its Country Representative, Mr. Wilmot Garnett who spoke of the many successful collaborative efforts at the small and medium scale level.
According to Garnett, such work has aided in the country improving its capacity to mitigate and adopt to Climate Change effectively.
Over the years, farmers from across the 10 Administrative regions have benefited significantly through collaboration with IICA, The National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) and the Rural Enterprise and Agriculture Development Agency.
The overarching benefits of the collaboration were highlighted by several beneficiaries including President of the Guyana Apiculture, Linden Stewart and Administrator of the Women Agro-processors Development Network, Olita Williams who spoke of the transformation which has since occurred and has aided in the advancement of their groups.
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