The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) does not have the luxury of time when it comes to slashing its food import bill by 25 per cent by 2025, and regional banking institutions have been called out to stop lagging and step up to support the relentless agri-food efforts.
Delivering the feature address at the Agri-Investment Forum and Expo on Friday, President Dr Irfaan Ali positioned that regional financial institutions can do much more to support farmers and agriculture.
His call comes at a juncture where countries have been rallying in unified efforts to slash the massive food import bill and achieve food security.
“Unfortunately, our banking sector lacks the internal drive and the internal commitment to food security in the Region. I say so not because we want to pick a fight with the banking sector, but because I believe the banks across the Region can do much more and should do much more in supporting food production, agriculture and our farmers,” the President lamented.
In Guyana, he commended the banking sector for supporting the policy direction of Government in aiding farmers, which in turn, has led to increased operations.
In three years, resource allocation to agriculture to farmers increased by over 300 per cent to a whopping $33 billion.
“What followed this in the last three years from the local banking sector is an increase in their lending to agricultural projects by 61 per cent. This tells a story that both in the public and private sector, there is great confidence in what we are doing in relation to the 25 by 2025 and in relation to the food production plan.”
Just last July, the Government managed to broker the reduction of interest rates on loans to poultry farmers from eight per cent to five per cent.
Vision 25 by 2025 was conceptualised by President Ali for a 25 percent reduction in the Region’s food import bill by the year 2025. Owing to the Region’s dependency on imported foods, it faces hardships when disruptions occur.
Now, he noted that countries must ensure that regional institutions and the Caribbean Development Bank reorganise their project portfolio to reflect what is required to achieve Vision 25 by 2025.
The President affirmed, “They have to reorganise their programme portfolio to provide greater investment, to bring commercial banks in the Region together, to deploy their private sector window with the regional commercial banks. We have to build more consortiums. Not everybody as small as we are, are investing in the same technology. When we say Guyana’s prosperity must be the prosperity of the Region, that is why we’re making these investments.”
As he highlighted the determination of countries such as St Vincent, Barbados, St Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname and Jamaica to achieve this vision, the incoming Caricom chairperson added that the age for trade barriers amongst countries is over.
“We are committed to positioning Guyana among the leaders in food security. Vision 25 by 2025, the vision of Caricom, will succeed. There is absolutely no room for failure…The work of the Ministerial Task Force of Caricom cannot be understated. We can no longer compete with each other. What we have to do is utilise each other’s competitive advantage for the benefit of the Region. The days for trade barriers among ourselves are over when it comes to agriculture.”
As of 2022, the Region achieved 57 per cent of the production target towards reducing the food import bill. Over the next two years, more than 1.4 metric tonnes of commodities must be produced to achieve this target.
A spice development programme has been launched in Jamaica; a national shade house project and cattle farm in Trinidad and Tobago; increased agricultural production in St Lucia and Dominica; a new tissue lab and phytosanitary legislation adoption in Barbados; 75,000 hectares of land for large-scale agricultural projects in Suriname.
Guyana is the lead in agriculture and food security in the Caricom bloc. This is reflected in its transformative projects in priority commodities such as corn, soya beans, aquaculture, livestock along with traditional crops.
