For all the hype and hoopla that has traditionally attended Guyana’s reputation as a producer and exporter of food, a recent study across the country’s ten administrative regions undertaken by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), suggests that challenges associated with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic have posed food availability challenges for some categories of Guyanese.
A media release published by the Department of Public Information (DPI) earlier this week says that the “assessment” which was conducted between July and August and overseen by the Ministry of Agriculture, revealed that farmers and fisherfolk indicated that they had “consumed lesser quantities of nutritious foods because there was not enough food or money to feed household members.”
The DPI release said that the study’s main areas of focus were “on production activities and the livelihoods of farmers, fishers, vendors of agriculture inputs, and food traders.” The study, the release added, sought “to assess income/production losses; inputs, marketing and supply chain difficulties and shifts in food consumption choices.”
According to the release, the overall assessment deriving from the study and which is embodied in a final report, utilised data obtained through an online survey in which 167 Agriculture Extension Officers, 741 farmers and fishers, 88 vendors, and 116 food traders participated. The respondents were reportedly drawn from all ten of the country’s administrative regions of Guyana.
In addition to the various other challenges, the study found that the COVID-19 pandemic in Guyana had resulted in an increase of women’s workload particularly in relation to their domestic chores and care-giving tasks.
Among the various other “key findings” of the study, the DPI release said, were challenges related to “loss on income” by “farmers and fisherfolk,” between May and July compared to the same period last year. Livestock farming respondents, the release added, revealed “production difficulties” which they attributed to access to feed… and processing and retail/market issues.” It adds that fisherfolk and Extension Officers had informed of challenges associated with the marketing of fish resulting from “decreased prices and other concerns and restrictions related to COVID-19.”
Other challenges, according to the release, arose from what it described as “a noticeable decline in employment of daily or seasonal agricultural labourers” as well as in “the number of market traders operating on a regular basis.” It also alluded to a reduction in the hiring of vehicles to transport agricultural produce and livestock.
The study draws attention to the fact that “limited consumer access to markets/shops” arising out of COVID-19-related restrictions also posed challenges to the food system, creating a knock-on effect on both consumer access and sales “since (both) producers and consumers were unable to access markets/shops.”
According to the release “the reduction of income, access to markets and other difficulties within the food system varied differently across the ten administrative regions,” while consumers also experienced “limited availability of certain foods.”
