President Irfaan Ali says his government is doing its best to alleviate the burden imposed on citizens countrywide due to escalating food prices, when questioned yesterday on the sidelines of the European Union Trade Mission, at the Guyana Marriott Hotel.
The president blamed the unprecedented and protracted El Nino period (dry season) as significantly contributing to the astronomical spike in the prices of fruits and vegetables.
“Our farmers are faced with a prolonged dry season. There are drought conditions. Yield has reduced, and productivity has reduced. In some areas, some farms have been burnt out because of the extreme heat, and this has caused a drop in supply. The basic theory is that if there is a drop in supply and demand does not decrease, then price increases. So, that is primarily the main issue that we have here,” President Ali told the media.
The President said that assistance would be provided to farmers in light of these circumstances. The Guyanese Head of State said, “that this climatic condition is among the external variables that the Government cannot regulate, as it is a global issue. If you look at our inflation rate, and if you look at the numbers, you will see that the policies and the types of measures that we have put in place have minimized that impact substantially. We would love it to come down tomorrow… but what the government has to do is to implement measures to minimize the impact, and we have done that,” he said.
“We are working on supporting the farmers so that their input cost could come down. But they are faced with the challenge that even with reduced input cost, the climatic condition is affecting severely, their productivity, which is their yield, and also destroying their crop completely. So, there is a major problem with supply,” he said.
Recently, the Government announced that it will allocate $850 million for the purchase of fertilizers for farmers. According to President Ali, this will benefit 287,000 acres of cultivation and 35,000 farmers. These initiatives are to be funded in part by the $5b cost of living allocation in this year’s budget.
