FAO partners with UG, other agencies to improve agriculture sector

An agreement to the value of US$332,500 was on Wednesday signed between the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the University of Guyana (UG) along with other agencies to complete work in areas of food and nutrition security, climate-resilient agriculture and disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.

According to a statement from the FAO, the UG agreement formalises a grant of US$50,000 to the institution towards the establishment of a Food and Nutrition Security Institute at the Turkeyen campus and a further US 99,500 to facilitate technical socio-economic studies for the preparation of a comprehensive proposal for adaptation in agriculture which will be submitted to the Green Climate Fund.

Agreements were also signed with the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the National Red Cross Society (GRCS), the National Agriculture Research and Extension Institute (NAREI), the Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA) and the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) for projects that will commence very early in the 2018.

The agreement with CIAT was signed to conduct climate change scenarios and studies that will also contribute to the proposal for adaptation to climate change in the agriculture sector.

Funds to GRCS, GLDA, GRDB and NARIE for work on disaster risk reduction and adaptation of best practices in the agriculture sector to build resilience against climate change value US $83,000.

According to the FAO, these agreements will now allow the institutions introduce adaptation measures using best practices for the cultivation of crops, livestock and aqua-culture.