By: Kimberly Ramkhalawan
October 18, 2022
One Agriculture Consultant is confident that CARICOM nations can achieve this goal outlined by its leaders to reduce the region’s food import bill by 25 percent by the year 2025. His position he says comes from the resurgence among regional heads that have tailored their policies aligned with their impetus to see this come to past.
Riyadh Mohammed, an Agriculture Consultant, Scientist and Farmer himself sat down with Caribbean Magazine Plus to share his insight on how he sees this as realistic goal for the Caribbean countries.
Mohammed said he was “very pleased with the most recent expos between Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana”, and to see the “dedicated collaboration of the ministries and as well as the private sectors between the CARICOM countries”. Noting the push by Guyana on the front to achieve this, with President Dr. Irfaan Ali leading the charge as chairman of Agriculture, Mohammed says the estimates also put forward by Guyana’s Vice President Bharat Jagdeo, that an “additional US$7.5bn in private sector investment is required in the region’s agriculture sector, if the goal of increasing output by US$1.5 billion by 2025 is to be realized. Therefore, it is critical to reducing the region’s growing US$6bn annual food import bill by 25 percent by 2025 to combat food insecurity”.
Recently both Barbados and Guyana engaged in an exchange of black belly sheep for breeding and rearing and was seen as the momentum for returning to livestock native to our region. It is known that the region is one of the world largest consumers of poultry, which Mohammed describes as at least having a “well managed poultry (broiler growers) sector”. However, he laments that most other livestock species are not being produced efficiently, with major domestic livestock such as goats’ meat and dairy, sheep, cattle for both beef and dairy, pigs, rabbits, ducks and layers for table eggs, are not being fully utilized. To him the issues encountered lie in the subsistence and small-scale livestock farmers and includes a lack of tropical and well adapted livestock species and genetics for breeding programs.
In Trinidad and Tobago, the Buffalypso was a breed of cattle developed to thrive in our climate and once dominated the market as a rich supplier of beef and beef products. Mohammed says there needs to be a return to animal breeds conducive to our region’s environment. Citing Jamaica as an example of having dual purpose animals that are able to tolerate the temperatures, withstand diseases, Mohammed says cross breeding with other tropical breeds can assist in making the region’s livestock pool stronger and even unique.
Attaining adaptable livestock species for production also involves the need to supply timely support services, such as artificial insemination, and proper planning for fodder production for the dry season for ruminant production. While he mentions the cost of feed for monogastric animal production, the issue of available feedstock also has begged the public question, as to why the region does not produce its on food for its animal population. Mohammed answers this clarifying that these crops simply do not grow regionally.
He adds that focusing on producing feed locally and utilizing non-conventional feed resources should be on the table and calls for the involvement of the public sector services year-round. An interesting point he raises is the implementation of commercial indigenous wildlife production and more active and meaningful round the table discussions between all food production stakeholders, seeing that this type of meat is generally consumed and seen as exotic in the region.
While, President Ali says his government intends to pursue research geared at finding crops of similar nature that can grow locally, such as potatoes, carrots and other crops that dominate imports, Mohammed says this has been looked into years gone by, and research shows its cultivation is promising. However, while growing these crops is possible, the argument that producing this commodity locally would not be feasible. Cost of production is high, while imported potatoes come in at a very reasonable and super competitive cost.
The recent expos hosted by both Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago appears to have shown much promise to the region. In the eyes of Mohammed, both events stimulated the excitement needed to get food production back on the front burner. If not at government levels, he says it offered stakeholder collaborations through public private partnerships, which will aid competent food producers and the associated value chain stakeholders to grow their businesses and improve on the productivity and efficiency. Underscoring the need for PPPs, Mohammed says it is for the public sector to support the private sector initiatives and projects. And while “there is always the argument of the efficiency by the public sector which is under continuous financial constraints and the lack of investment to support the private sector, he believes as a private sector representative himself, they do need the support of dedicated investments and platforms such as this”. He recommends these events be held at least twice per year in different parts of each country, giving a wider access to farmers and a wider cross section of the agri-business sector a chance to participate.
But even as the world looks to meet its food needs, there comes the responsibility factor to the planet and the environment. This he says comes through modernizing the agri-sector in what he describes as integrating the people, planet and profits into a synergistic framework. Utilizing Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) approaches are somewhat similar to, but very different from a set of guidelines like Good Agricultural Practices (GAP). He looks at policies, incentives and tax regimes that work to encourage agro-processing, but making it viable also looks at creating standardizing bodies, such as Organic Certified associations, that assist in making sure their foods are exportable through a standardization of healthy foods. He says incentives offered need to also go beyond outdated agro-metrics and take a look at greener measures where farmers too are reducing their carbon footprint in the machinery used. This might also mean looking at solar/wind powered machinery
To Mohammed, he believes the “soils of the CARICOM have grown hundreds of commodities for many generations”, and with advanced the right agricultural soil conservation techniques, with the implementation of health food block chain measures, the right incentives, achieving a reduced food bill for the entire region is possible.
To see more or hear in the context some more of Mohammed’s ideas for food sustainability for the region, listen to the link below.