If we appear persistent in our call for the government to prepare, publish, and implement a countrywide programme of activities to mark International Year of Fruits and Vegetables (IYFV), so designated by the United Nations since December last year, that is because we see possibilities not just for Guyana’s participation in a global event that can boost the morale of the large numbers of local farmers during a period of trials and frustrations, but also because we can use IYFV as an important base on which to further consolidate an agricultural sector that is of significance to building a food-secure regime both here in Guyana and in the wider Caribbean.
Following the December 21, 2020, declaration by the United Nations designating 2021 International Year of Fruits and Vegetables, the Stabroek Business took a decision that it would dedicate a portion of its editorial content to stories seeking to raise awareness of fruits and vegetables and their importance both as food and as money-earners for the agriculture and agro-processing sectors. These we understand to be amongst the priorities of the country’s agricultural sector.
Since that time the UN’s Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) has issued a report raising the spectre of a possible global food scarcity challenge (which, needless to say, will hit poor countries hardest) on the back of the extant COVID-19 pandemic.
What the FAO has had to say about the likelihood of a forthcoming food crisis now places IYFV in an even more important perspective, that is to say that it may well use IYFV to throw the weight of the UN behind an even more aggressive global acceleration of fruit and vegetable production as a response to the food security challenges that lie ahead.
Even before the FAO’s recent report was published, the Stabroek Business took a decision to, as far as possible, shine a continuous spotlight on IYFV. The continuity of our effort, we figured, would have had to depend on collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, the state agency responsible for rolling out an IYFG programme, and the FAO office in Guyana which speaks for the UN on IYFG here in Guyana.
A few weeks ago, upon reading what was our first story on IYFGV, a representative of the FAO office in Guyana contacted us and raised the possibility of a collaborative effort to shine a spotlight on IYFV as part of our editorial pursuits. We agreed, and while the understanding is a verbal one we have already decided that we will look to the FAO office here for guidance on the global IYFV agenda and on how we can best contribute to the raising of national awareness. Naturally, we considered it important that the Ministry of Agriculture be part of any partnership to promote IYFV in Guyana. More than that, we felt that the Ministry was by far the most suitable institution to prepare an IYFV programme and to spearhead its implementation. We remain keen to participate in such an initiative.
Our latest information does not suggest that the Ministry of Agriculture, up to this time, has made public a national programme for IYFV.
Guyana ought, correctly, to be a key CARICOM player in the planning and implementation of regional IYFV initiatives. Additionally, the occasion allows for an additional measure of media attention on our local farming communities, their work, their challenges, and how they fit into the overall national development picture.
We continue to await the promulgation of a national IYFV programme by the Ministry and to working with the Ministry, the local FAO office, and the national farming community to ensure an impactful programme.
This being the last weekend before the end of the first quarter of 2021, we urge the Ministry to hasten the pace of rolling out its IYFV programme.
