The Government’s collaboration with other countries to boost food production and attain its 25 by 2025 food vision has expanded to include Israel, as President Dr Irfaan Ali announced that they were seeking to incorporate more use of technology in food production.
During an address at the opening of Teleperformance’s new location where he laid out the Government’s focus on technology, President Ali spoke of technology in agriculture. He revealed that the Government was working with Israel on boosting food production.
“Food production: Right now, we’re working with a team out of Israel, because we have to think about food production, changing weather conditions. We can’t be continuously exposed to the vulnerabilities of weather and then you don’t have food on the market.”
“So, we’re implementing the best technology in the production of food. Not only hydroponics, but looking at ways we can have the control of temperature, growing high-value crops,” the President said.
Israel has long been hailed for its agricultural practices. The country cultivates wheat, corn and other crops. According to President Ali, data will be essential in the effort to modernise agriculture.
He was also optimistic that once they were successful in bringing the best manufacturers, industrialists and agro-processors to Guyana, this will be a plus for the economy and for the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) market.
“In agriculture, data is going to be central. The collection of data. The processing of data. But all of this must be supported by a service platform. If we are successful in bringing all the major players, industrialists, manufacturers, agro-processors to Guyana, and they now use Guyana as a manufacturing and production hub, it brings business to you also. Because they will need a customer care system and if it is provided in-house, then they buy into it,” the President further said.
Guyana, led by President Ali, has been piloting the reduction of food imports into the Region by 25 per cent in the next three years. He has articulated his Government’s vision of Guyana being the bread basket of the Caribbean.
It was reported last month that member states of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) have collectively achieved a significant 57 per cent of the target set to realise “Vision 25 by 2025”. This announcement was made during the first Caricom Ministerial Task Force (MTF) on Food Production and Food Security meeting for 2023.
A statement from the Agriculture Ministry stated that countries submitted reports detailing their production data for 2022 for targeted commodities, as Caricom moves towards lowering the regional food import bill by 25 per cent by the year 2025.
It was reported that products such as cocoa, dairy, meat, root crops, fruits, and poultry have already reached 96.13 per cent, 84.36 per cent, 72.28 per cent, 70.91 per cent, 70.77 per cent and 70.19 per cent, respectively, for the targeted production volume set for 2025.
Moreover, countries such as Guyana, Belize, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Jamaica have made significant advances in the production of commodities such as ginger, turmeric, corn, soya bean, root crops, fruits, cocoa, poultry, meat, fish, table eggs, and dairy.
The report also indicated that for 2022, Guyana produced some 20,195 metric tonnes of ginger and turmeric, 144,289 metric tonnes of root crops, 21,870 metric tonnes of fish, and 40,749 metric tonnes of coconut.
During the 104th Special Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED), trade policies for animal and animal products, a regional agricultural health and food safety policy, special sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) guidelines for 19 commodities, and alternative SPS settlement mechanisms were approved.
Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha noted that these were great achievements for the Task Force. He explained that with these mechanisms in place, a level playing field is being created, making way for easier trade in agricultural products, intra-regionally.
