THE Inter-American Institute for Cooperation of Agriculture (IICA) celebrated 43 years of working in Guyana with a grand opening ceremony on Thursday at its head office on Brickdam.

Agricultural Health Specialist of IICA, Dr. Maxine Parris-Aaron opened the ceremony with a word of prayer, after which she remarked that the actual official day for the celebration of IICA’s 43 years in Guyana is today, Sunday, October 7. However, because members of the IICA team will be individually elsewhere, a decision was made for the opening activities to be done on Thursday, October 4.

“It is a wonderful organisation with talented people, but what we do we do not do alone and we also recognise our friends, collaborators and partners,” said Dr. Parris-Aaron, as she extended greetings to the Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Noel Holder; Minister of Health, Dr. Karen Cummings; IICA’s Representative to Guyana, Mr. Wilmot Garnett; Mr. Jean Ricot Dormeus, OAS Representative to Guyana; the Ambassador of Argentina, His Excellency, Dr. Felipe Alejandro Gardella; PAHO/WHO Representative, Dr. William Adu-Krow; Mr. Garvin Cummings from Hydromet, Mr. George Joves, a long-time friend and associate of IICA, and others.

Dr. Parris-Aaron informed the gathering that also participating in the celebrations were some of IICA’s beneficiaries who formed part of the exhibition – men and women who came from Georgetown, as well as from the Pomeroon Women’s Agro-Processors Association. They displayed many local products, from edibles to cosmetology and medicinal products. The New Guyana Marketing Corporation also had on display many of the local products produced by farmers and agro-processors in Guyana.

“We have done a lot, not as IICA alone; we have our partners – the OAS, FAO, CARDI, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the other various different ministries for which we are thankful because collectively we have a greater impact,” said the IICA’s Country Representative, Mr Wilmot Garnett.

NEW MEDIUM-TERM PLAN (2018 – 2022)
Mr. Garnett noted that throughout the years IICA has been involved in a number of activities, all in an effort to develop, improve and sustain agricultural development in Guyana.

“However, I just want to mention that we have a new medium-term plan, 2018 – 2022, that highlights five main areas: agriculture, health and food safety that remains a priority; we look at business: agro-business, agriculture is a business; of course climate change remains a priority for us; rural development and well-being; and certainly the fifth is international trade. But also too, cross-cutting issues, which is technology and innovation; and gender and

youth.

He mentioned that an IICA team will during agriculture month be conducting visits. On his behalf and that of his Director General (of IICA), Dr. Manuel Otero, he congratulated the government and people of Guyana for celebrating October as Agriculture Month.

THE GREEN ECONOMY
Mr Garnett disclosed this year IICA will be focusing especially on the theme: The Green Economy, and also on technology and innovation to encourage the youth. He noted that the days of cutlass and a hoe will be yonder and being replaced by the drone. The drone, he said, has been used in different parts of Guyana to identify the best forage areas for bees. So it is not only about cutlass.

“The partners that are here with us today: The Women’s Agro-Processors Network represent over 15 groups; six years ago we started with three groups and we are at 15 now, and we realise that we all have experiences that sometimes we start groups, we leave them alone and they disappear. So what we have done, we have a coaching programme and at our office, we have an office for the network; they take care of their own bills, they have an administrator now and so we continue to provide coaching and technical support for them,” Mr Garnett explained.

REVOLVING FUND
Three years ago, IICA started a revolving fund with one million Guyana dollars and that has grown significantly. And, while the group reports to IICA, Mr. Garnett said that they are left to operate independently, since they also need to manage by themselves, the IICA representative noted.

“We have the Guyana Apicultural Society, because as you would understand, it is extremely difficult to try to go and work with individuals, so over the years we have assisted in terms of organising them and with a lot of support with organisational skills, as well as with governance, as we are talking money among people and so on. Here we have to be clear in terms of responsibilities, who do what and so on,” Mr. Garnett posited.

He also made mention of the Caribbean Week of Agriculture, which will be held next week in Barbados. Guyana, he said will be having a booth, which will be managed by the New GMC, as well as Go-Invest.

FOOD SAFETY BILL
Mr. Garnett said that he was even more pleased to have the Minister of Health, Dr. Karen Cummings and the PAHO/WHO representative present because of the fact that IICA is working very closely with the government for the implementation of the Food Safety Bill. The Bill has already had two readings and we are hoping to have a third reading very soon, he added.

“There are some issues that we need administratively, that we need to work out internally, but I just want to highlight that when we look at what happen with the fish – we lost that market and the main reason is that what we have right now is where there is, unfortunately, some communication issues in the many different organisations – who supposed to be doing what and unfortunately they fall between the cracks in terms of compliance with international standards and that is one example,” he said.

HONEY

Mr. Garnett said that he was very happy that Minister Holder and the technical team will be discussing honey; the honey situation and the trade in the Caribbean, which he think is a “ticklish” situation but assured that in the coming weeks these situations will be resolved.

The official activities ended with the cutting of an IICA cake in celebration of the occasion, as well as a tree planting exercise within the IICA compound.

Also in attendance were secondary school children, most of whom are agriculture students. The children spent the rest of the afternoon, moving around the booths, where they also had a question and answer session of matters related to agriculture. (mercilinburke2017@gmail.com)