Dear Editor,
Many productive assets are either not being used at all or are producing below capacity. We still have far too many hectares of good agricultural land in Region Two-Pomeroon /Supenaam which are idle or inefficiently utilised after 19 years.
There is no magic formula or blueprint for achieving success in developing our economy. Low production is the direct cause of our poverty in Guyana. We have to change this situation by increasing significantly the national output of goods and services. But to be able to do this with any measure of success, we first of all have to liberate and develop the productive forces. We must begin by knowing what we have – what potential for development exists not only nationally, but also in our regions.
We have to identify and evaluate the assets at our disposal; in other words,begin by counting our blessings. Given our resource base, we in Guyana are in a fortunate position to break the cycle of low production and achieve the goal with good management. The programme for developing agriculture requires us to do a number of specific things like the Mahaica/Mahaicony/Abary, Tapakuma and Black Bush schemes. These schemes will be expensive and will cost millions. But given our endowment of extensive and rich agricultural land, it is a matter of commonsense to make the expansion of the agricultural sector one of the main planks of our development strategy. Our development possibilities derive principally from the land. We must therefore develop a strong emotional attachment to the land. Land is the mother of our existence .It provides us with food. We must use it beneficially for it gives us rewards in direct proportion to the care and attention we expend on it.
A country which depends for its food supply on external sources is in a vulnerable position. It is incapable of guaranteeing its citizens adequate or regular food supplies, and finds it difficult if not impossible to exercise an important option of social policy, ie, regulating and maintaining food prices at reasonable levels. Moreover, such a country is susceptible to serious political pressures from outside.
Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Khan
