Canadian funded SAC project to benefit 12,000 youths, women, marginalized men

The World University Service of Canada (WUSC) hosted a virtual exercise to launch its five-
year Sustainable Agriculture in the Caribbean (SAC) project that is set to benefit some 12,000
women, youth (both female and male), and marginalized men in five Caribbean countries
yesterday. The event was namely for Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, Dominica, and St. Lucia.
It noted that persons who will benefit from the programme, which is being funded by the
Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada (GAC) to the tune of CAD $20 M, will
be exposed to an agricultural project. This will increase their impact on agricultural markets in
the Caribbean, while developing more environmentally sustainable and climate-resilient
domestic agricultural markets for economic growth. While delivering the feature address at
today’s launch ceremony, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha stressed that the need to
increase opportunities and capacity for women and youths in various agricultural market systems
were goals that are linked to the ministry’s vision and that the private sector also has a role to
play as enablers in the system.
“The need to invest in agriculture, could not be clearer. As such, Guyana is pleased to be joining
our sister CARICOM countries Jamaica, Suriname, Dominica, and St. Lucia in this project. The
need to increase livelihoods, opportunities, and capacity for women and youths to participate in
inclusive, sustainable, and climate-resilient agricultural market systems are goals that are linked
with the ministry’s vision of having a competitive, dynamic, and diversified socially inclusive
and environmentally sustainable agri-food system. The Government of Guyana aims to help
farmers grow more, be better connected to markets, thereby earning more and living better lives.
At the same time, the private sector has a role to play as enablers in this system to increase their
productivity, improve the quality of their production and their reliability as suppliers, and help
build strong producer organizations to access the markets,” Mustapha declared.
It was noted that the SAC project was designed to facilitate linkages between key market actors,
strengthen their capacity through training, information-sharing, and outreaches, and foster
climate-resilient approaches at every stage and via a wide range of key market actors in the
agricultural market system. This approach is expected to help increase productivity and
profitability in the agricultural sector, to mitigate the impacts of climate change, reduce the
Region’s vulnerability to natural disasters. It is further expected to foster climate-resilient
agricultural markets that offer increased equitable, inclusive, and sustainable economic benefits
for women and youth.
H.E. Mark Berman, Canadian High Commissioner to Guyana, said that there was an urgent need
to build back better as Guyana’s agriculture sector charts a path to recovery. This, he said is
given the challenges brought on by the countrywide impacts of this year’s May – June flood
compiled with the ongoing global pandemic and issues of climate change. “The launch of the
SAC Project is particularly timely as we consider the challenge Guyana’s food production
system faced in 2021 with the countrywide impact of the May to June 2021 flood compiled with
the ongoing global pandemic and the issues of climate change. As the sector charts a path to
recovery and resilience, there is an urgent need to ‘build back better”. Building back better
requires a transformative agenda that involves making food production more diverse or

sustainable, more efficient, and more inclusive. Inclusion of women and especially Guyana’s
indigenous communities are essential across many rural farming communities of Guyana,
women are well-known producers of cash crops or vegetables, not only to feed their households
but also to supply traders and markets,” Ambassador Berman said.
It was noted that in addition to achieving economic benefits for targeted agricultural markets
actors, the SAC Projects also aims to pursue environmental sustainability in relation to Guyana’s
commitment to carbon emission and mitigation. Further, to pursue climate resilience and adopt
climate-smart agricultural practices. By the end of the programme lifecycle, it is expected that
here will be increased equitable participation of women and youth in agricultural markets.