Efforts to revitalise the pig-rearing industry in Guyana received a shot in the arm yesterday when farmers from several locations countrywide received imported boars to boost their breeding stock.
The Swine Breeding Programme is one aspect of a food security programme government is implementing in the light of rising food costs globally. The distribution was facilitated under a collaborative programme between the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and the Ministry of Agriculture.
The 46 boars which cost government up to $180,000 each were given to farmers in pig-rearing communities and will benefit others in cluster groups as moves to genetically improve the industry moves apace. Farmers are also expected to receive technical information and guidance to support the development of the swine industry as part of the agricultural diversification drive. They are also obligated to fulfil obligations and stick to certain procedures and management principles to ensure that the objectives of the programme are fulfilled. To realise this aspect, they will be monitored from time to time by technical personnel from the ministry.
The boars were imported from Suriname and were being kept at the GDF farm at the Garden of Eden until they were formally handed over yesterday. The animals were handed over after a Memorandum of Understanding between the GDF and the Ministry of Agriculture was signed.
During a brief address to farmers, Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud said government had expended some $27 million on the programme, which also includes the component being undertaken at the Guyana School of Agriculture where some boars are also being held for breeding purposes. Persaud said the new breeding stock was important to enhance the industry and that efforts were also ongoing with the private sector for genetic improvement in cattle rearing. As regards the collaboration with the army, Persaud said the GDF had played a great role in its success.
At the same time, acting army Chief of Staff Colonel Bruce Lovell said the GDF’s involvement in the venture helps it to fulfil one of its roles, which is to contribute to the economic development of the country. He said the army was cognisant of the link between the country’s economic development and the need for a stable national security environment. “We in the GDF interpret our national security role in a very comprehensive way,” Lovell said, adding that it was on this impetus that it became involved in contributing not only to food security but in other ways that will ensure a national security climate is created.
Lovell said the current global trend of rising food prices and growing food shortages was a new frontier, which would present enormous security challenges if left unchecked. It is against this background too that the GDF readily accepted the challenge to get involved in the swine-breeding project as food security would be a guarantee for national security.
Food security
President Bharrat Jagdeo said yesterday that he believed Guyana was still in a better position than many other countries in terms of food security. The President, just back from a regional security conference in Trinidad and Tobago at the weekend, said he heard several Trinidadians complaining about the quickly rising food prices with some even lamenting that their country was becoming like Guyana.
“But Guyana has a better food security environment than them,” Jagdeo said, pointing out that he dedicated a special committee to address the issue which is to report to Cabinet today. After the report, a decision would be taken as regards government’s efforts to safeguard supplies for the domestic market. In the light of increased global food prices Cabinet has endorsed the adoption of some limits on rice exports so as to ensure adequate stock for domestic consumption.
Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon announced last week that Cabinet’s attention to food prices, particularly for commodities that are internationally traded, such as rice, had deepened. Luncheon had said too that increased production was one of the key responses that was particularly suited to Guyana.
Jagdeo told farmers of the challenges he has encountered as lead minister for agriculture in the region, in making regional governments understand how important investments in the sector would be. He said leaders tended to look at how much agriculture contributed to their Gross Domestic Product, which is small amounts in most cases, and tended to share the perspective that more investment in this regard would only benefit countries like Guyana and Belize.
The President said too that requests to fund projects in the agriculture sector only came from Guyana and a few others and that he was facing an uphill battle convincing leaders to renew a commitment to the sector. “You can’t eat tourism. Our people must eat. If we don’t have food security our domestic produce will be displaced by imports,” he said, adding that the region’s food import bill was US$3 billion.
Jagdeo also alluded to a proposal from Trinidad to utilise land in Guyana for agricultural production. He said he had been trying for some time to encourage regional governments to invest in Guyana to supply the region’s food thus lowering the food import bill. In this regard, the President said that a conference would be held here in June to work out specific projects. (Heppilena Ferguson)
