PM Mottley warns of more disruption to food supply as a result of droughts

Chatting with the in-person and virtual audience attending to the Agri-Investment Forum and Expo II on the Queen’s Park Savannah here on Friday,  Mottley stressed that a reorganisation of plans beyond the medium term, is imperative.

“It due to this fact implies that our plans cannot only be medium term plans to substitute feed, which we must do, as Guyana is planning on doing under the distinguished leadership of my brother, President [Dr. Irfaan] Ali by 2025, with corn and soya production being ramped as much as scale,” she stated.

“We don’t have the posh of that.  Because we now have a population that’s feeling the vagaries and the negative consequences of rampant inflation.  But inflation goes to also reinforce the incontrovertible fact that the dearth of access goes to be there due to these droughts.”

Given this expectation, Mottley repeated the urgency for regional farmers to grow six and twelve weeks’ crops and suggested that in addition they deal with rearing six-weeks’ livestock to satisfy the needs of the region.

“None of us can avoid the fact that our people must eat. And the fact is, that there are things that we will do and that we now have done in our past to make sure survival.

And we’re there again. Whether it’s rabbits or chickens, whether it’s fishing, whether it’s new forays as we’re doing in Barbados in aquaculture, we now have the responsibility for urgent motion today,” the Prime Minister added.

“We’ve written every Minister of Agriculture asking for the projects. Some have began to are available in already and so they’ll be loaded on the electronic dashboard that might be available for heads to see today.  Also on that dashboard might be training support from CARDI…,”

The Prime Minister also reiterated the importance of tackling the problem of air and maritime transportation, mentioning that regional heads were working on these areas, which she emphasised was a piece in progress.

The Expo, which concludes on Sunday, has as its theme: Transforming Agriculture through Innovation and Investment.

Because the hosting of the Guyana forum, Mottley shared that regional heads had been asked to formulate a framework for financing. She added that Barbados had worked assiduously with the financiers in addition to with regional and international organisations to effect this.

“We’ve written every Minister of Agriculture asking for the projects. Some have began to are available in already and so they’ll be loaded on the electronic dashboard that might be available for heads to see today.”