Silence on regional food security terminal ‘broken’ by disclosure of new Guyana-CDB undertaking
Even as it continues to focus on playing its role – along with Barbados – in piloting the emergence of a regional regime that seeks to ease the region’s food security woes, Guyana’s Ministry of Agriculture has announced, through the Department of Public Information (DPI) that it will be collaborating with the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) in what the release says are projects designed to “boost food security” in the region. Specifically, the release says that two projects designed to “propel the country’s food security agenda and boost market access and export” were launched on Tuesday February 6th though it gave no indication as to whether or not the projects are hinged to the ongoing food security pursuits of the region.
The DPI report makes reference to “two projects” which it says will cost “approximately $143.1 million (€$636,106)” and that funding for the undertaking will be secured from the “CDB and European Union’s CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) and CSME Standby Facility.” The release says that the first of the two projects seeks to “strengthen surveillance programmes to protect against bovine tuberculosis and brucellosis… milk-borne infectious diseases that affect cattle.” The undertaking, according to the release, “is expected to protect the growing livestock industry while increasing beef and cattle production productivity… This initiative will also catapult the dairy industry, advancing ventures such as the government’s dairy project, which benefits hundreds of single parents,” the release adds.
Observers will doubtlessly note that the recently announced envisaged food security-enhancing initiative comes at a time
when the countries of the region are collectively preoccupied with enhancing their food security bona fides through an initiative in which Guyana, along with Barbados, have been assigned critical roles. Observers will also note that the disclosure is in effect another regional food security undertaking being promulgated, even as the ‘lead’ countries in the substantive food security initiative, Guyana and Barbados, are yet to furnish the people of the region with a substantive update on the pace of progress towards the promised Food Security Terminal which
the Stabroek Business has repeatedly called for.
The release regarding the ‘new food security’ undertaking with the CDB included a disclosure from the Agriculture Minister that government is “in the process of building a state-ofthe-art abattoir in Region 5, where we are now looking to develop the cattle industry in beef and dairy.” The release also alludes to a “second project” which promises “the development of a food traceability system for pineapples and leafy greens in Guyana.”