Dear Editor,
Drainage and Irrigation was always under the Government’s microscope, especially in support of the agriculture sector; and the continuum of interventions included, but was not limited to:
• Significant improvement in the operation and implementation of the flood control structures;
• Construction of additional drainage outlets countrywide;
• Major rehabilitation of approximately 600 miles of canals and drains, as well as the Dawa Pump Station;
• Rehabilitation of pump stations, structures and drainage outlets;
• Negotiations for financing to optimize efficiency and capacity of the conservancies, especially with the objective to maximize the availability of arable lands for farming activities;
• Installation of the Doppler Weather Radar;
• Expansion of the hydro-meteorological monitoring network
• The Hope Canal; among others.
The rice sector is the second most important agricultural industry in Guyana, contributing about 40% of the agri sector GNP, or 12% of GDP.
Through CIDA, support from BCCP concretized an RPA dream, of providing farmers top-quality seed paddy at competitive prices. Before the APNU+AFC Coalition RPA General-Secretary Dharamkumar Seeraj said that the Association was also working toward establishing fuel depots and importing fertilizer in an effort to reduce and stabilize, as much as possible within the constraints of world market prices and other factors, the price of inputs in agricultural production.
The Agriculture Sector again came under threat by the coalition government.
Guyana has, since the days of our ancestors, been producing enough food to feed ourselves. However, with the Jagdeo Initiative on Agriculture and Guyana’s “Grow More Food” campaign Guyana entered a new dimension in food production and, under Jagdeo’s tenure as President, broke grounds in vital rice markets, including the Venezuelan and Colombian markets, which the failed Granger-led administration lost within weeks of accessing the government. Having lost some of our niche markets in Europe the PPP/C Government was not prepared to buckle under. As in the case with sugar, when the EU tried to cut the ground under our feet with its restructured import policies and prices, Guyana’s policy-makers in the PPP/C rose to the challenge and strategized to ensure that our rice sector emerged from every setback stronger and more competitive in the global arena. The ground-breaking Venezuelan market is a case in point; and this was just the beginning of Guyana’s climb into a world player in agricultural products, until the failed Granger-led administration drove the growth trajectory of Guyana’s forex earners plummeting underground once more, even as they trumpet their own praises to the skies.
Under coalition administration, the sugar industry was inexorably strangled, cash-crop farmers lost hope; and the rice sector once more became imperiled. The nation’s agriculture sector once again awaited the re-emergence of a PPP government to rescue it and ensure the continued fructification of Dr. Cheddi Jagan’s vision for national, regional and global food security.
The current PPP-led government has taken the agri sector to new levels, as did previous PPP-led administrations, and is introducing more non-traditional cash crops in efforts to reduce Guyana’s food import bill and avail Guyanese of fresh produce – broccoli, soya, corn, carrots and more in large-scale quantities, untainted by preservatives.
Guyana’s traditional industries, especially agriculture, under every PPP/C administration, would never be superseded by the gas and oil sector, even though the additional revenues and accompanying, adjunctive benefits are welcome; but would always be foremost in its national developmental paradigm.
Yours truly,
Alvin Hamilton
