Against the backdrop of two recent, widely publicized and well-supported events in Guyana and Barbados, respectively, which drew attention to both the food security potential of the region and what, up until now, has been a gap between aspiration and realization in that regard, it would have occurred to observers that what we were witnessing was the familiar hype and hoopla reflected in the pleasing turnouts to view the product displays and the restating of previous official food security-related undertakings by high officials including Heads of Government.
The key difference this time around was that the high profile enjoyed by the successive food display events here in Guyana and subsequently, in Barbados, were proffered against the backdrop of a more global food security concern, accentuated by the logistical snags that now attend global food distribution in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. What we have learnt about the war and its impact on food availability suggests that the condition could persist for quite a while yet and that it could well impact on us in the Caribbean.
The more immediate issue on the regional food security agenda, of course, has to do with the fact that the volumes of extra-regional food imports keep rising against the backdrop of what is widely believed to be an indifference among us in the Caribbean to the application of remedial measures. One might add, of course (and this is by way of repeating what we have said before) that the regional response to the dynamics of the existing food security challenge has been uninspiring, to say the least and that the fact that we have arrived at a position where we are now aiming to jettison at least 25% of the food that we export from outside the region by 2025 points to a failing of considerable proportions.
Over time the food security challenge has become more imposing. Setting aside the continually growing numbers that we now have to feed, circumstances, notably climate change, have become an enemy of the agriculture sector and this, incidentally, is likely to be a problem which the Caribbean will have to face, increasingly, in the years ahead.
The biggest problem for the Caribbean here has to do with what one feels has been a lack of real will, over the years, to properly discharge our food security obligations. Some of the real heroes, here in Guyana and elsewhere in the Caribbean, are our farmers whose efforts, in many instances, continue not to be matched by commensurate official support. There may be times when, purely for image-enhancing purposes, government, here in Guyana, for example, employs a kind of patronizing posture, manifested in pronouncements that ‘big up’ farmers as the backbone of the country’s economy and the real drivers behind our food security goals. The problem is that there is no real evidence that the ‘noises’ about our farmers being the backbone of our food security credentials are a great deal more than ‘hot air.’ There is a mindset here that has to change since, as we in Guyana say, the noise in the market is not the sale.
Some of the challenges that our farmers continue to face in Guyana are, truth be told, palpably a function of a protracted official indifference.
The latest round of noises and ‘legwork’ in the region as reflected in the two aforementioned events in Guyana and Barbados are, in themselves, meaningless, since critics can argue with some justification that we have seen and heard it all before. What is probably different, this time around, is that there appears to have been a higher level of direct involvement in the events surrounding the 25 x 2025-driven events in Guyana and Barbados by our Heads of Government. If this, coupled with the understandings that appear to have been reached about how we attempt to manage our food security responsibilities, going forward, are genuine and if work has already started in pursuit of actualizing those understandings, then we must begin to see clear indications that this is in fact the case.
On the issue of regional food security the problem that the Caribbean Community faces at this time has to do with the believability gap with regard to the seriousness of its oft-declared intentions.
