A former government officer is optimistic that the large-scale agricultural plan the region is implementing to guarantee its food security – the Jagdeo Initiative – could work, but only with careful planning and execution giving due consideration to various constraints.
Ivan Douglas, a former land development officer in the PNC administration, said he did not see any reason why the government’s and region’s push for an agricultural project should not be successful. But he said there must be proper testing of the soil to determine the viability of certain crops and careful consideration of other factors, such as market availability.
Themed ‘Strengthening Agriculture for Sustainable Development’, the objectives of the Jagdeo Initiative include alleviating binding constraints to the development of the sector and creating an enabling environment to encourage a revival of investment in agriculture.
In keeping with this, an Agriculture Donors Conference held in Trinidad and Tobago in June last year raised US$10 million in pledges from the region for the project. It will be the prime focus of the two-day regional investment conference opening today.
Douglas, now 85 years old, said while the coastland was good for farming and the project might be successful in that regard, marketing needed to be fully developed in order for the produce to be sold.
He said that depending on the size of the project, cost and yield per acre needed to be factored in and advised that there be a thorough study of the possibilities. “You have to think of fertiliser costs and water availability. The land is good and it is there,” he said. “You need a water supply…you can’t depend on rainfall.”
He said that with farming, settlements will evolve and the infrastructure for these need to be well thought out. During his days working for the government, Douglas was able to plant corn and peanuts and said that he did very well. “You have to think of the economics when farming on a very large scale. Depending on the volume of the cultivation to be done, cost will be a factor,” he said.
In the 1960s and 1970s, he was involved in land development, which entailed sharing land and settling people in those lands. “I was sent in to look at corn and peanuts…I was there for two to three years through a project [that came about] as an arrangement with Caribbean governments,” he said.
Douglas said he was willing to lend his expertise in any way towards the efforts being contemplated for the development of agriculture in Guyana.
The initiative
The Jagdeo Initiative is a practical instrument to move forward the Regional Transformation Programme (RTP) on Agriculture or its successor, the Caricom Common Agricultural Policy. The initiative began in 2002 when President Bharrat Jagdeo, Lead Caricom Head of Government for Agriculture, sought the assistance of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).
Then in late 2003, President Jagdeo proposed that the region build on its past effort to develop a Common Agricultural Policy and requested the Directors General of IICA and the FAO to support the Caricom Secretariat in developing a framework for repositioning agriculture in the region.
According to the Caribbean Regional Agriculture Policy Network’s (CaRAPN) website, at the 25th Caricom Conference of Heads of Government in June 2004, the Heads agreed that there was need for a strategy and endorsed a process that would allow for agricultural development.
“The Conference enlisted IICA, along with FAO and the Caricom Secretariat to assist with the development of a framework towards a common regional agricultural repositioning policy and strategy,” CaRAPN said.
The body said the Jagdeo Initiative was not an attempt to reform the RTP, but was based on the acute recognition that progress within a CSME requires the full and immediate operationalisation of the RTP.
The Jagdeo Initiative provides the focus and framework that were previously missing in regional efforts on agriculture. “It is in this context that it must be viewed since it provides an excellent base from which to continue and to consolidate the individual efforts, resources and commitment of all who consider themselves part of the growing Caribbean community. It must succeed in revitalizing agriculture in the region,” CaRAPN said.
Ten constraints to the success of the Jagdeo Initiative have been identified including limited financing and inadequate new investment in agriculture. Others are outdated and insufficient agricultural health and food safety systems; inadequate research and development. A fragmented and disorganised private sector; inefficient land and water-distribution management systems; deficient and uncoordinated risk management measures; inadequate transportation systems, weak and non-integrated information and intelligence systems also characterize the sector. In terms of marketing, weak linkages and participation of producers in growth market segments; and lack of skilled and quality human resources were also identified.
Speaking to Stabroek News, Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud said various countries in the region were assigned the lead in coping with one each of the ten constraints identified. He said reports have been coming in on the monitoring to overcome the constraints and monitoring would have to be strengthened to move the process forward in a more expeditious manner and allow for greater accountability in meeting the commitments.
Persaud said Guyana has been given the lead in addressing water and land resource management because of the country’s expertise in this area. Based on the constraints, each of the lead countries is making a number of interventions with a view to overcoming them.
Persaud had said this current Agri-Investment Forum will potentially lead to the elimination of the constraint of financing and investment, since this was where investors would be matched with projects.
In his address at the Fifth Meeting of the Core Group supporting the Jagdeo Initiative earlier this year, President Jagdeo noted that the agricultural sector continues to be a substantial contributor to regional economies and its role as a major contributor to the gross domestic product can be achieved through the initiative.
The President said agriculture was not only important to the region as food security, but as a competitive export bloc, which will earn “tremendous sums of money.” He said the speedy implementation of decisions made under the initiative would be critical, especially with the emerging global trends. Jagdeo said he hoped the Caribbean could tap into at least half of the US$3 billion spent by the region on food.
Seventeen farms
In August last year, Guyana had made proposals to the government of Trinidad and Tobago for cooperation on agriculture that would see that island nation providing funding for farms in this country. It was expected that the project would coincide with the creation of 17 large farms in Trinidad and Tobago. The Trinidad and Tobago/Guyana partnership could see the cultivation of 120,000 acres of land in Guyana with the Guyana government supplying the land and the Trinidad and Tobago government providing initial funding. However, so far, not much has been done to further this project.
Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Patrick Manning said some months ago that his country was preparing the ground for a level of food production “never before seen in this country.”
The Prime Minister said he also saw a relationship with Caribbean community partners in developing a successful plan for mass increased food production and saw other partnerships enabling the expansion of the sea bridge to include Grenada, St Vincent and the Grenadines and St Lucia.
