The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations on Thursday made commitments through the signing of Letters of Agreements (LOA) to the value of US $332,500 for work in areas such as food and nutrition security, climate-resilient agriculture and disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.
The University of Guyana (UG), 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) are all recipients of funds through the FAO for projects that will commence very early in the 2018.
According to a statement from the FOA, the agreement between them and UG 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.”
FAO says it is extremely happy to partner with UG in these two critical areas and sees this partnership as a step closer to the realization of Sustainable Development Goal number two for zero hunger in Guyana by 2030.
Likewise, a LOA was signed with CIAT to conduct climate change scenarios and studies that will also contribute to the proposal for adaptation to climate change in the agriculture sector.
LOAs to the value of US$83,000 were signed with the 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.
“These agreements will now allow the institutions to work with frames to introduce adaptation measures using best practices for the cultivation of crops, livestock and aqua-culture” said the FOA.
The simple signing ceremony for the University of Guyana’s agreement was held in the office of the Vice-Chancellery, Turkeyen Campus. Singing on behalf of the University was, Vice-Chancelor and Principal, Dr Ivelaw Griffith and on behalf of the FAO, Country Representative, Reuben Robertson.
The FAO of the United Nations said it “welcomes these partnerships and is extremely happy to offer technical support to these institutions. In doing so, FAO pledges its commitment to Guyana in its attempt to eliminate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition, make agriculture, forestry and fisheries more productive and sustainable, reduce rural poverty and increase the resilience of livelihoods to disasters.”
