Latest update April 17th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 24, 2011 Editorial
That the Guyanese economy needs to be diversified is accepted by most commentators. We hope that during the upcoming (or ongoing) political campaign, we will be provided with detailed plans as to how the political parties plan on accomplishing this feat.
The mainstays of our economy over the past century or so have remained the three primary products of sugar, rice and mining – which generally meant bauxite. Gold always ebbed and flowed: right now it is flowing. Changes in the global landscape will most likely ensure the volatility of primary products. While it appears that strategically, expansion of rice to take advantage of the seemingly endemic global food security problem is necessary, diversification remains a prerequisite for our survival.
Over the years, there have been several attempts to diversify the economy but self-evidently, all have failed. What needs to be done is for the Government to sit down with all the stakeholders and craft a viable strategy for diversification. While we must support the hi-tech ICT4D route touted by the government, it is doubtful that Guyana possesses the capital resources – both human and physical – to be in a position to initiate, implement and sustain hi-tech industries to compete with the products coming out of the Far East in general, and China in particular.
It is much more pragmatic to base our strategy of diversification on our existing comparative advantage: abundant land and the agricultural production that goes with it. We just have to add value to that production, which means that the diversification strategy has to begin with agro-processing.
We possess the basic knowledge and personnel to begin with here, and the capital requirements should be within our local means. While all governments – pre and post independence – have pointed out the significance of agro-processing, the commitment in terms of resources has never been made by any of those governments, to overcome the constraints for competitiveness in that area. The agro-processing reality is evidently not as glamorous as the “hi-tech” talk.
Two of the major constraints to agro-processing have been the reliable supply of inputs and the quantity of those inputs. Our small and stagnant jam and jelly industry exemplifies these bottlenecks. The rice industry has demonstrated, however, that local farmers can become highly organized in production to match the very best in the world. We should note, though, that their present proficiency is the result of decades of trial and error, with periodic doses of Governmental intervention.
Agricultural diversification for agro-processing will need some greater coordination of farmers’ output, to create viable industries in a timeline that will be meaningful to this generation. This is where the Government can provide incentives and other assistance, especially in the expansion of the requisite knowledge in the areas of production, marketing and manufacturing. While President Jagdeo has presented an exemplary plan for agricultural expansion and diversification to CariCom, it is obvious that we will have to go it alone.
The present sugar turnaround blueprint incorporates some diversification within the industry, but does not go far enough. In the face of an imminent fossil-fuel crisis, the government must go beyond the trial ethanol plant contemplated. An agro-processing zone in the East Berbice region, which has an overabundance of productive land and farmers, should be identified. A specific major constraint of agro-processing in Guyana has been the unavailability of safe, reliable and inexpensive electricity. The Skeldon co-generation plant can address this need.
Several years ago, the Ministry of Agriculture had introduced an excellent example of the type of diversification that is appropriate for our circumstance. In several areas of the country, farmers were shown that the rearing of Tilapia can be combined with the cultivation of rice, where the same plot of land can essntially produce two products. In view of the perennial complaint of our generally small rice farmers – that they are caught between rising inputs and falling prices, – this programme appeared very feasible for providing higher revenues. The project seems to have died in the trenches, so to speak, and we wonder if there has been any study of its demise.
JAGDEO ADDING MORE DANGER TO GUYANA AND THE REGION
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