Agri-Ministry committed to agri-advancement
DPI, GUYANA, Monday, February 26, 2018
In its efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, the Ministry of Agriculture has been working with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in the area of food and nutrition security to assist the country in realizing the potential for agricultural advancement.
Minister of Agriculture Noel Holder
At the FAO’s National Dialogue, the Agriculture Minister, Noel Holder highlighted that with hunger levels rising around the world, the ministry along with FAO’s assistance has developed and recently revised the National Food and Nutrition Security Strategy and Action Plan, which tackles poverty together with food and nutrition insecurities.
“This is the guiding policy to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2, Zero Hunger since Guyana is a net exporter of food and is being recognized globally as being food secure”, Minister Holder said.
The minister also spoke of Government’s Green State Development policy’s efforts towards poverty eradication and employment. He noted that this is seen by the promotion of the sustainable school feeding model in Regions One, Five, Seven, Eight and Nine. This resulted in the strengthening of the Education Ministry’s ongoing school feeding initiatives in addition to boasting community entrepreneurship and investments.
Giving the call for better policies to address the increasing incidences of hunger in Latin America, the Agriculture Minister pointed to the fact, that while the availability of food is not a cause for concern within the region, access remains a challenge. As such, there is the planned establishment of a Food and Nutrition Institute at the University of Guyana to build capacity within the country and by extension, the Latin America and Caribbean Region with the intention of providing training and research on food and nutrition security.
The upcoming FAO conference will be held March 5-8 in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Participants will engage in dialogue on solutions for the regional issues put forward by stakeholders on challenges of hunger and obesity, the threat of climate change on agriculture and extreme poverty in rural areas.
By: Stephon Gabriel