By: Staff Writer
March 22, 2024
President of Guyana, Dr Irfaan Ali, said at the 38th Regional Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) that there must be a “balance,” and an “equilibrium,” struck on meeting the needs of those starving and using all possible mechanism at our disposal to meet those needs.
Ali also said that the “use of technology” in agriculture must be a part of the solution moving forward as much as incorporating women and young people in and around food production.
He also said: “Agriculture is only a component of a food production system. Sometimes we mix up things we think that it’s about agriculture. It’s not about agriculture. It’s about the food production system or about the technology that involves processing; that involves transport and logistics; that involves value creation; that involves agriculture, producing the raw materials.”
Getting women and young people involved in this critical juncture of the food production “ecosystem,” is a top priority and this integration needs to be “data driven.”
Ali also said: “So, we have to examine critically the global production system, and to see whether there is some reorganization that is required and what structural changes are needed for a reorganization, the other issue is finding a secure production system, we can create the best agricultural model in the food production system landscape in this region, but one hurricane and wipe it all off.”
There must be a coming together of the minds to address the food production system vulnerabilities that each region faces and find mitigation strategies to combat those vulnerabilities.
Most importantly, there must be the “political will” to combat hunger, starvation and malnutrition.
Speaking about the progress being made in the Caribbean on combatting hunger, starvation and malnutrition, Ali spoke of a recent leverage of $100m from a private institution to help with agricultural production and added that while this $100m is from the private sector, more assistance is needed from the multilateral system so more “weight” and pressure can be put on concessional loans to support the food production system. “We need greater integration and integration is not only on the national level here,” but here in this region leaders are now working on a regional food hub that will seek to integrate CARICOM with the rest of Latin America.