Presidential Advisor on Sustainable Development Navin Chandarpal recently told a United Nations forum that international financial institutions should provide concessionary term credit for small agricultural producers to assist them in overcoming the high cost of restarting after losses due to floods, pests or other natural phenomena.
Chandarpal was addressing the Sixteenth Session of the UN Commission on Sustain-able Development on the Thematic Cluster of Agricul-ture, Rural Development, Land, Drought, Desertifica-tion and Africa, in New York last Friday.
He also called for sustained and scaled-up investment in agriculture at all levels, including the enhancement of the security of tenure for small land-holders and the preservation and expansion of agricultural livelihoods.
Chandarpal, representing Guyana, proposed too a Special Fund which should also be simple and easily accessible for Food Security to provide support for access to appropriate technology, new varieties and training for small-scale agricultural producers, according to a statement made available to the media.
He told the forum that the Guyana delegation associated itself with the statements made by Antigua and Barbuda on behalf of the Group of 77 and China and Grenada on behalf of AOSIS (Alliance of Small Island States).
The significance of the tasks facing the Commission on Sustainable Development cycle on the thematic cluster of agriculture, rural development, land, drought, desertification and Africa are clearly emphasized, Chandarpal argued, by the ongoing global food crisis which highlights the collective failings in taking effective action in these areas so far.
Agriculture which is the backbone of efforts to provide food for all the people of the world, he observed, has not been accorded the importance that it deserves at the global level.
For instance, he said, while much has been done to improve the science and technology related to agricultural expansion, the tools needed to increase production and productivity are largely unavailable to the majority of small producers. “This situation is compounded by the unjust global trade arrangements which place added pressures on small economies and small producers,” Chandarpal asserted.
He also pointed out that the effects of global climate change have further intensified these challenges, with floods and drought leading to severe losses by both large and small producers. More-over, competing demands for land lead to huge reductions in the areas under cultivation, as well as desertification in many places and particularly in many of the countries of Africa.
And today, he added, the “continuing dramatic rise in the cost of fuel threatens to provide the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back.”
CARICOM
response
Meanwhile, Chandarpal informed the UN forum that in the Caribbean, the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) have already taken action to begin addressing the impact of the food crisis, placing the need to increase agricultural production on the front burner in order to meet the needs of the region.
He also highlighted that President Bharrat Jagdeo, who has the lead role for Agriculture within CARICOM, had set the stage in 2004 with the preparation of a strategy to reposition Caribbean agriculture. This approach which is called the Jagdeo Initiative has identified ten major constraints that need to be addressed.
In addition, Jagdeo offered other Caribbean countries which have a serious shortage of suitable land, the opportunity to invest in agricultural production in Guyana in order to boost the Region’s food supply.
“Grow More Food”
In Guyana, Chandarpal told the UN forum, the government has put in place a number of measures to help in reducing the impact of escalating food prices, and has taken the policy position that a more effective solution lies in increased agricultural production processes. Consequently, there is a “Grow More Food” campaign in which special assistance is being given to small farmers.
At the global level, many reasons have been cited for the ongoing food crisis, Chandarpal observed, and central to these are “critical issues such as the decline in relative terms in investment in agriculture and rural infrastructure, the effects of climate change, the escalating fuel prices and the trade conditions for agricultural products that are hostile to small economies and producers.”
Against this background, Chandarpal asserted that an integrated approach to the thematic elements in this cluster is necessary, if the specific challenges are to be met and the food crisis overcome.
“My delegation is of the view that a combination of actions must be pursued to reverse the present crisis (and) this outcome is contingent on the fundamental issues being addressed in the short and long term,” he stated.
Among these issues, urgent efforts should be made to bring conclusion to the Doha round of negotiations in the WTO (World Trade Organisation) to cater for the needs and interests of developing countries.
In addition, the Global Fund for Adaptation to Climate change must adequately provide for assistance to poorer countries to carry out the additional infrastructure works required for effective water management in relation to both floods and droughts resulting from climate change.
The Climate Change Adaptation Fund, he added, must also be administered in a less complicated manner than the GEF (Global Environment Facility) requirements in order to allow easy access to small developing countries and others which are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
Clearly, he told the UN forum, many of the critical interventions for a durable solution to the food crisis take place in a multiplicity of international fora and disparate processes.
In many instances, he contended, the failure to pursue these interventions effectively is a result of situations ranging from poor coordination and communication to a lack of sufficient concern for the plight of the underdeveloped countries and the poor living in both developing as well as developed countries undermining all efforts to achieve the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals).
While there is an inclination, especially by some powerful forces to treat a single type of crisis as an anomaly or passing phase in global developments, the reality, Chandarpal posited, is that the on-going food crisis has emerged within the context of existing deep crises of growing inequalities within and across countries, tensions and wars, climate change and escalating fuel costs.
Each is in itself a serious threat to humanity, and when added the sum is geometric and not arithmetic, he asserted.
And resolution of these crises cannot be done by isolated approaches that are piecemeal and inconsistent, he emphasized.
Chandarpal further warned the forum that the adverse consequences of the growing food crisis will not be confined to small states and poorer people. “It is a threat to all. This recognition should provide a wake up call as to the need for genuine approaches to the implementation of the commitments made at Rio, Johannesburg, Barbados, Mauritius and at CSD (UN Commission on Sustainable Development) in each succeeding year,” he concluded.
