Bypassing the basic stuff

Discussions at last month’s Council of Trade and Economic Development (COTED) meeting in Georgetown came against the backdrop of proposals made by Guyana’s President Bharrat Jagdeo a year ago to Heads of Government on repositioning Caribbean agriculture.

In his presentation titled "A Framework for the Repositioning of Caribbean Agriculture," Jagdeo said the fundamental motivation for his proposal for a Common Agricultural Policy for the Caribbean, "was that in the changed global environment, our agricultural sector was neither providing for our own food security nor earning the foreign exchange to cover our growing food import bill."

"A grim reality however, is that our major agricultural exports — sugar, bananas and rice — which had sustained our economy and made us net food exporting countries are all simultaneously under severe threat," he said.

"We have to be resolute to maintain the market access even as we work to restructure these industries to enhance productivity and value and increase product range from the basic materials," said Jagdeo, Lead Head with responsibility for Agriculture.

The agriculture sector continues to be an integral part of the region’s economy, contributing 6.5 percent to GDP in 2000, directly employing over 15 percent of labour force and the main source of foreign exchange for many countries in the Caribbean. It also provides an important building block for the agribusiness sector such as the rum industry. Increased agricultural production and the greater availability of fresh and nutritious foods also has the potential to improve the health of the Caribbean population, he said.

Citing data from national surveys in Barbados, President Jagdeo said it shows that obesity increased from 32 percent to 47 percent among females and from 7 percent to 26 percent among males between 1968-2002. "This obesity is related to over-nutrition consumption of the wrong foods, mainly imported and a sedentary lifestyle," the Guyanese leader said.

At last month’s COTED meeting, CARICOM’s secretary-general, Edwin Carrington said the agricultural sector issues being examined reflected the importance of the sector in regard to food security, rural development and social stability.

"They are the basic stuff of which sustainable growth and development are made," he said, adding that the critical aim of Jagdeo’s initiatives is to ensure the fundamental transformation of the agricultural sector towards market oriented, internationally competitive and environmentally sound production of agricultural products.

This country’s Agriculture Minister, Jarette Narine also addressing COTED observed that critical issues continue to confront regional agricultural development.

He noted that the challenges facing the sector include reform of agricultural and trade policies and legislative, regulatory and institutional framework as the Caribbean seeks to adjust in the global environment.

"Time is not on our side. Our decisions today are critical if we are to realise substantial progress towards achieving the goals we’ve set for ourselves in the context of the Revised Treaty and the transformation of our regional agriculture sectors."

COTED also received an update on the status of implementation of activities under the CARICOM/CARIFORUM Food Security Project covering the period June 2004-April 2005.

The fundamental goal of the project is to improve the food security situation of the CARIFORUM states both individually and as a whole, by increasing the availability and access to adequate quantities of safe, quality assured food products to food insecure and poor rural communities across the region.

In making out his case for comprehensive Caribbean agricultural development, Jagdeo said agriculture must be strategically repositioned for global competitiveness of agri-products and for balanced development of rural areas and communities.

Global competitiveness of agri-products will require re-definition of the sector to include the entire agri-product chain and the linkages with tourism and other economic activities; strengthening the region’s negotiating stance to secure the best conditions possible for production and trade and new agreements and appropriate packages of support for both the traditional and new areas of production among others.

Balanced development of rural areas and communities will ensure the retention of skills required to produce the agri-product competitively while sustainably managing the natural biodiversity and ensuring the equitable distribution of income within the rural areas and between the rural and urban areas.

These, Jagdeo said, will require development and implementation of appropriate pro-agriculture/pro-rural development macro-policies and programmes that encourage investment in rural areas. It will also require development of agro/eco-tourism opportunities to allow rural dwellers to become an integral part of the tourism industry and product and management of the natural biodiversity, under pinned by an enforceable legal regime in order to enhance the commercial use of traditional knowledge and agro-foresty products, such as herbal medicines among others.