Maintaining Guyana’s food security at a crucial time

(Guyana Chronicle) In recent weeks, Guyanese have been flocking the markets almost in panic for fresh fruits and vegetables, as the Coronavirus advances widespread necessity for healthy foods and intake of vitamin C. Some consumers have lamented the rise in prices and seemingly scarcity of certain produces especially citruses like lemons and oranges. There have been claims of lemons being retailed for as much as $600 each while oranges are reportedly being sold at $100 each. Occurrences like these have given rise to fears of national food security coming under threat. But for, a country like Guyana with an abundance of fertile lands and freshwater sources, what risks and what opportunities exist amidst this pandemic?

In the minds of people like Director of the National Agricultural and Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) Dr. Oudho Homenauth, Guyana, when compared to its neighbours in the Caribbean and even some across South America, is in a far better position to maintain food security, and to sustain the health and wellbeing of citizens as per normal. He is however not turning a blind eye to the fact that the Coronavirus is a global phenomenon with devastating impact on all activities including trade, businesses and therefore income and spending power of the population. Such effects can potentially stress not only the availability of food but access due to economic downturns and rise in prices. “There is need to ramp up food production, and this is something we have urging all long even before this crisis,” Dr. Homenauth outlined.

The Agriculture Ministers & other stakeholders met in a special session of the COTED on Thursday via videoconference to consider https://t.co/lkrEgAqBP4 the impact the pandemic was likely to have on food & nutrition security in the Region.

— Caribbean Community (CARICOM) (@CARICOMorg) March 24, 2020

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) recently issued a call for world leaders to take measures to keep global food systems working well amidst the pandemic.

FAO director-general, Qu Dongyu, in an online address from Rome to the G20 Extraordinary Virtual Leaders’ Summit on COVID-19 days ago, stated: “the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting food systems and all dimensions of food security across the world…”

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Source: CARICOM TODAY