If cassava may not necessarily be the ‘last word’ in the pursuit of regional food security, Guyana, it seems, is in the process of positioning itself to put the widely cultivated root crop forward as an option that simply cannot be overlooked in the ongoing animated discourse on how to meet the requirements of every dinner table in the region. Guyana, at least, would appear to be making no secret of its belief that a regional food security assignment, the final results of which remain decidedly undeclared, can be considerably enhanced if cassava is embraced as part of the wider food sufficiency equation.
The case, mind you, is being made against the backdrop of a wider regional food security ambition that would appear to have stumbled at the hurdle of a critical assignment, the creation of a food security hub that can serve as the nerve center for ensuring that there is sufficient food to go around the numerous pockets of food insecure people in the region. Context-ually, a case may be emerging – and this assertion is being made with a generous measure of caution – for cassava cultivated in Guyana to become an important part of the wider regional food security conversation.
Late last month, President Irfaan Ali, who along with Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley had been assigned to lead the regional security ‘charge,’ announced that Guyana had harvested upwards of 20 million pounds of cassava for 2024, so far, an initiative which a state media source said was “in line with its developmental trajectory to increase food productivity.” Not only is food production in such volumes unheard of anywhere else in the region, but more to the point, the disclosure on Guyana’s proficiency in cassava production can hardly be separated from the wider food needs of other Caribbean territories, some of which, lacking in any credible bona fides, rely largely on extra-regional food imports to feed their respective populations.
Reportedly, like several other countries across the world, Guyana, it seems, continues to bank considerably on cassava cultivation as one of its ‘go to’ food security undertakings, even as the country’s wider food security pursuits remain closely linked to those of the remaining countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). That Guyana would appear to be banking heavily on cassava cultivation, both to help meet its own food security needs, as well as to make what can be a generous contribution to the wider regional food security undertaking, is reflected in the fact that, according to President Ali, his administration will be seeking to bring a further 500 acres of land under cassava cultivation at Mabaruma and other hinterland communities. That means significantly greater volumes of food produced in the region with which to help fend off the menace of food insecurity.
The impressive and timely increase in the country’s cassava yield is being attributed largely to the introduction of a new variety of cassava that has reportedly had the effect of upping yield from fifteen tons per hectare to thirty tons per hectare. While in Africa cassava is described as ‘the power crop’ of the region, no such accolade is applied here in the Caribbean. That said, cassava has established a reputation as a ‘go to’ food option for ordinary households in parts of the Caribbean.
While the news of the increase in local cassava production could have implications for the enhancement of the region’s food security bona fides, President Ali has also reportedly alluded to the opportunity that has now been created to process greater volumes of cassava into farine for export to Brazil, a move that takes account of the need to create an additional income stream for households in indigenous communities, where cassava is cultivated and farine manufactured in abundance. Contextually, this opens the door for significantly enhanced investment in the farine industry to meet what, reportedly, are is the significant demand of the neighbouring Brazilian market.
Already having long established a reputation as a key element in the food security of the rural poor in parts of Guyana, and as a strategically important industrial crop, in the tropical regions, cassava is regarded as one of the largest sources of carbohydrates. It has, crucially, long been seen as a major staple food in the developing world, with a capacity to provide a basic diet for significant numbers of people. Towards the end of March, the role of cassava as a crisis intervention crop was pointedly underscored when, in response to a food security crisis in the Deep South Rupununi, the Government of Guyana delivered approximately 500,000 pounds of cassava to communities in the region. No other agricultural commodity cultivated locally has the capacity to fill that need without considerably disrupting coastal supplies.
Creative cooking is, frequently, the product of financial constraints that limit culinary options and this, here in Guyana and elsewhere in the region, has decidedly been the case. Ordinary households are known to turn cassava, virtually on its own, into dishes which, at least here in Guyana, have been embraced and eventually further modified to ‘turn out’ culinary champions. Simultaneously, cassava continues to serve its ‘belly full’ purposes both here in Guyana and elsewhere in the Caribbean and across large swathes of the globe.
