News

Over the past years there has been a significant decline in traditional exports to the European Union (EU) while our extra-regional food import bill is estimated at around $3.5 to $4 billion US dollars annually.

That’s according to Acting Prime Minister Ambrose George who was at the time addressing the opening ceremony of the Climate Change and Science and Technology workshop at the Arawak House of Culture on Sunday. It was the first official event to start off the 10th Caribbean Week of Agriculture being held on  the island.

Regional air carrier Caribbean Airlines Limited (CAL) is looking to expand its air cargo lift out of Guyana; and is offering, as a promotional incentive to local agricultural exporters, a 15 per cent reduction in freight charges until the end of this year.

Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Ambassador Irwin LaRocque this week welcomed the Director General of the Inter-American Institute  for Co-operation on Agriculture (IICA) Dr Victor Villalobos as his first visitor from an institution since assuming office on August 15.

In an effort to increase food production, improve nutrition, and achieve a

This is the conclusion of a two-part interview with former Agriculture Minister Dr Christopher Tufton. Part one was published on Sunday, July 10.

DR Christopher Tufton remembers taking heavy flak for the sugar industry divestment programme and the introduction of the Farmers' Markets during his tenure as agriculture and fisheries minister but remains convinced that his actions were justified.

In fact, he marks both projects as among the Government's major achievements that have respectively saved jobs and given consumers and farmers options.

FORMER DIRECTOR GENERAL of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Dr Chelston Brathwaite, recently joined the St Augustine Campus of the University of the West Indies as interim director of the School of Agriculture.

In this new capacity, Brathwaite will assist the university in defining a new role for the school in supporting agricultural development in the Caribbean.

A LEADING agricultural official is questioning why regional governments have refused to invest more funds in the agricultural sector when it has the best prospect for growth and can save valuable foreign exchange.

Ambassador Irwin LaRocque has been selected to serve as the seventh Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) by the Heads of Government.
LaRocque, 56, a national of Dominica, replaces Sir Edwin Carrington of Trinidad and Tobago.

Guyana is one of two countries (Belize being the other) in the Caribbean to reduce hunger by 50 percent last year, says Lystra Fletcher-Paul, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) representative.
Fletcher-Paul indicated that Guyana knows what it wants in terms of agriculture in the Caribbean. Though the country has a high food production rate there is an issue of accessibility and this is the case in most hinterland communities where transportation is a challenge.

The Jamaican Government has placed an order for sugar from Guyana to avert shortages in that CARICOM country.
Quoting the Agriculture Ministry, the Jamaican Observer yesterday said that it has put in place measures to avert a shortage of sugar on the local market and has urged distributors not to hoard the product.
In a statement Wednesday, the Ministry assured the distributive trade that “adequate arrangements have been made to supply the market until local production comes on stream”.