Dear Editor,
I refer to the SN letter written by Mr George Jervis, P.S. Ministry of Agriculture, which is dated October 25, 2011 and captioned, ‘The government’s track record in developing and transforming traditional agriculture is recognized globally.‘ In his letter, Mr Jervis said that I negatively positioned the recently launched Guyana Food and Nutrition Security Strategy. This is a falsehood, as I never said anything in my letter about such a strategy on food and nutrition security. What I did say, using the facts that were compiled by the Guyana Government information sources, was the following:
1. that during the period 2001 to 2010, there has been a persistent decline in output for several crops such as sugar, cassava, coconuts, ground provision, plantain, mangoes, eschallot, hot peppers; and that there has also been a persistent production decline in eggs, fish and prawns;
2. that during the period 2001 to 2010, there has been a persistent increase in the prices for all the agricultural output listed above; and
3. that during the same period Guyana has been increasing its imports of food, when a grow more food programme is in effect.
Mr Jervis never addressed these issues, but instead pulled out a script with irrelevancies that need no further comment. Nevertheless, based on the three points listed above, it is clear that the agriculture sector is in crisis and not acknowledging it is unprofessional.
Speaking of professionalism, it may be worthwhile to point out that there has been a defect in the process used to answer technical questions in the Agriculture Ministry. The person responding to technical questions should be the Chief Agriculture Officer, or the Chief Fisheries Officer, or the Commissioner of Lands and Surveys. It should not be the Permanent Secretary, for he has other responsibilities. In other ministries, it is likely that this is the path still in use and there is professional justification for this approach. For example, if there is a crime, we should get a response from the Chief Crime Officer/ Commissioner of Police and not the PS Home Affairs. A mining problem should not attract a response from the PS in the mining sector, but from the Commissioner of Geology and Mines. Likewise, a forestry problem should attract a response from the Conservator of Forests. Mr Jervis, I think, has other things to do.
Yours faithfully,
C Kenrick Hunte
