Dear Editor,
The Stabroek News Monday editorial `Onion results in T&T’ (05.03.12) has given much food for thought as countries in the region scramble for ways and means of reducing their high food importation bill. However agriculture and the challenges it presents in Guyana and the Caribbean cannot be tackled in a piecemeal manner since there are neither quick fixes nor magic bullet. The entire process from planting, harvesting, (production), distribution and consumption must be supported and linked by a chain of activities that cannot be disrupted. Any missing or broken link disrupts and retards the entire process. The news that the world population will rise from seven to nine billion by 2050 which would require the output of grain to rise by more than half and meat production to double to prevent starvation has created a ripple and sent international institutions like the G20, UN-FAO, WTO, World Bank, etc back to the drawing board.
Guyana a country blessed with the greatest potential in agriculture with natural factor endowments such as large fertile and arable land backed by unlimited supply of water resources has not had its agricultural potential realized except for a short period in the 60’s. Guyana can also look over its shoulder to see how its neighbour Brazil has been able especially in the last decade to revolutionize its farms from a backward agrarian sector to one that is today competing and surpassing the USA, EU, Australia and Canada as a major food exporter, the first in the tropical region. In similar manner agriculture in Guyana can contribute as a basis for a structural transformation of the Guyanese economy despite being the favourite whipping boy of the media and the politicians.
The manifestation of an impending food crisis a few years ago saw the Economist (26.08.10) publishing a special report on the miracle of the Cerrado in Brazil once considered a barren large plot of land where nothing would grow. However, Embrapa or the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation established in 1973 through years of scientific research and technological innovation was able to turn the Cerrado green. Today it accounts for 70% of Brazil farm output. Between 1996-2006 Brazil’s farm production rose from $23 billion to $108 billion Real (365%). Beef export increased 10 fold with Brazil overtaking Australia as the largest exporter of meat – Embrapa created a variety of soya and turned it into a tropical crop. Today Cerrado is the cheapest place in the world to grow soya beans. Cerrado once deserted is considered the new US version of the Mid West in South America.
The importance of agriculture to Guyana and its contribution to GDP and employment is known and well published despite the nonsense preached by its detractors. Further Brazil offers a good lesson of best practices in agriculture that is driven and fueled by research and development with financing exclusively by state resources. Some years ago I was fortunate to listen to a very inspiring lecture by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). During the heyday of the Washington Consensus, CGIAR emphasized greater funding for Scientific and Technological Research in agriculture as funds dwindled in order to improve productivity in agriculture. Productivity in agriculture benefits an economy in a two-tier process. Once it emerges, increased productivity lowers the unit cost of production thus raising returns to the resources invested and real income. The second is the lower price of related goods thereby raising the real income of producers. The International Food Policy Research Institute pointed out that a dollar spent on Agri research yields $9.5 when compared to the same dollar spent on fertilizer subsidy which yields a return of only 0.85 cents. The establishment of Agriculture Research at NARI, Mon Repos with plans for a research unit at the University of Guyana under Dr. Cheddi Jagan in the early sixties was intended to diffuse technology to the farmers’ community that would have realized Guyana as the “bread basket of the Caribbean”
Agriculture in Guyana had suffered the disadvantage in access to critical finance. Since Levine’s pioneering work in the 90’s a strong nexus between finance and economic growth has been established. Despite highly publicized annual reports of higher profits by commercial banks in Guyana, year after year overall lending to agriculture is miniscule. Worse, the terms and conditions are quite onerous especially for small farmers and manufacturers.
One can hardly find a successful agricultural or even an industrial project driven by the commercial banks in Guyana. It is for this reason that I strongly support the need for a state development bank in Guyana with public accountability that is capable of balancing risk, failure and success in the entrepreneurial spirit of trial and error experiments into new ventures. Today four of the world’s largest and most populous economies: Brazil, China, India and Indonesia are taking off with a vibrant agriculture sector that is reducing poverty and ensuring growth in a sustainable way. Mind you agriculture reduces poverty twice as fast. Agriculture will only take off when it is treated not as a problem to be nursed but as a challenge and opportunity to be grasped. I have not dealt with Chile or Colombia that are successful case studies with good lessons for replication.
Yours faithfully,
Rajendra Rampersaud
