The Ministry of Agriculture yesterday announced the launch of a Ministerial Advisory Group on Diversification made up of 17 public and private sector officials who have been appointed to provide creative input with regard to Guyana’s agricultural diversification drive.
The group is co-chaired by Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture Dindyal Permaul and Victor Pires, Managing Director of Caribbean Chemicals. It also includes Yesu Persaud Chairman of Demerara Distillers Ltd (DDL); Robert Badal Chief Executive Officer, Guyana Stockfeeds Ltd; Asad Habibulla, Managing Director of Rising Sun Farms and Oudho Homenauth, Director of the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI).
Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud told the gathering of officials that in 2006 there were some improvements with regard to diversification of local agricultural products and he would like to dispel the view that diversification rides on the four P’s; peppers, plantains, pumpkins and pineapples. These products, he said, were simply identified as flagship crops.
The ministry was looking at other crops, Persaud said, and engaging various persons on the efficient use of land to produce non-traditional products. In this regard he mentioned that the production of soya bean was stymied by the time in which necessary input material have been taking to arrive from Brazil. Ethanol production was also included as part of the minister’s plan for diversifying the sector.
Reiterating the importance of the drive toward diversification being market driven Persaud stated, “We are not discounting any area once we know there are markets.” He pointed out that certain private sector organizations such as DDL were drafted because of among other things its established international networks that could be beneficial in the implementation of the programme.
Pires reminded the minister of past forays into producing corn and soya bean and mentioned difficulties with transporting the products because of the lack of roads. “Unless there are roads to accommodate 40-tonne trucks,” Pires said, such niche products could pose insurmountable challenges.
In response, the minister suggested that the group would have to come up with creative and innovative methods of moving the programme along. Here he recalled discussions with the Trinidad and Tobago Citrus Growers Association that expressed interest in establishing facilities that would allow for them to process their products in one place and have a finished product ready to move.
He suggested that since Guyana has the land there is the possibility of preparing products to a certain level then shipping them out for further processing. Pires recalled that his grandfather shipped pineapples to Trinidad for processing because of the cost effective advantages.
The minister alluded to the challenge of sourcing cheap energy and referred to looking at Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) linkages to alleviate such logistic issues. He mentioned the pending hydroelectric developments government has been looking at and said, “but in the meantime processing may be done elsewhere.”
