Agriculture Economics Course
Dear Moderator,
Kudos to everyone who commented so far, there has been a torrent of solutions. This has made it especially difficult to generate novel ideas. Nevertheless we chose to look at this problem from a different facet of the diamond; therefore we have decided to look at the problem through the eyes of the consumers.
If you were designing an agricultural investment programme, what are the top 5 things you would do to maximize its impact on nutrition?
1. Assessing the needs of the population.
Every population is unique in its own entirety, some are large some small, some are aging while others are young. Therefore the first things we would do when implementing a nutritional programme is to assess the age of the population in question, from that proper nutritional needs of the population can be address since different age group requires different level of nutrition. we also need to address the consumption patterns of the population what are we consuming too much of and what are we consuming too little of, even if the data for consumption in a particular country or region is limited it is safe to assume what is being produce in abundance in a particular region that is what is being consume. This situation is most prevalent in the developing or poor countries like Guyana.
2. Sensitizing household food preparation
Food preparation is unique amount people of different cultural or traditional background for example in Guyana the same dish is prepared differently amount different ethnic group. Some of these traditional methods of preparation are unknowingly diminishing the nutritional content of the dish being prepared. For example in Guyana the overcooking and undercooking of food is prevalent in households. This is one of the major reasons why we would sensitize the population on preparation of proper household cooking methods.
3. Informing the public about the benefits of healthy eating
We have to ask ourselves why is eating healthy eating important.
Even though the ideology that healthy eating is good for us is widely known, little or no thought is put into the benefits or how detrimental our consumption habits could be on our body especially in the long run. Therefore we recommend that fundamental ideas be put forward like eating for tomorrow and not just for today promoting a longer life span.
4. Decentralization of the supply channel of perishable produce.
The supply of nutritional produce is not one of question, because if we don’t produce how can we eat healthy to get nutrient. But getting the produce to those who need it can be limited by distance and other environmental factors. So therefore we would decentralize our distribution channel of perishable produce especially in remote areas, rather than having the product produce at one central location. This would reduce the risks of nutritional values being loss during transportation; in addition to that the accessibility of the produce will be increase since it is being provided at a closer location. This could also aid in the problem of over and under consumption of vitamins dues to availability of produce that contains the necessary vitamins. For example in Guyana rural citizens normally consume what is available because of the limited availability of different agricultural produce which is mostly available in the main town.
5. Packaging
Packaging is very important to the supply chain, not only to hold the produce but to preserve the shelf life and retain the nutritional content of what is being package. In addition to that we would place the nutritional content of the produce on the package. This would inform consumers of what they are consuming, the exact nutritional content of the produce. In addition to that this method we would like to capture the busier portion of the population, those who don’t have the time to cook a nutritional household meal. We would create a product that is rich in the basic nutrition needed for daily consumption like the Gerber single for adults; package in a comfortable an attractive manner. Taken into to account the main focus is to provide our population with nutrition and not profit, the best interest would be as such avoiding the mistakes made by Gerber adult single since they produce in an operational efficient manner for them not for the market “Harvard business review why big companies can innovate”.
Dear Moderator,
Kudos to everyone who comment so far, there has been a torrent of solutions. This has made it especially difficult to generate novel ideas. Nevertheless we chose to look at this problem from a different facet of the diamond; therefore we have decided to look at the problem through the eyes of the consumers.
If you were designing an agricultural investment programme, what are the top 5 things you would do to maximize its impact on nutrition?
1. Assessing the needs of the population.
Every population is unique in its own entirety, some are large some small, some are aging while others are young. Therefore the first things we would do when implementing a nutritional programme is to assess the age of the population in question, from that proper nutritional needs of the population can be address since different age group requires different level of nutrition. we also need to address the consumption patterns of the population what are we consuming too much of and what are we consuming too little of, even if the data for consumption in a particular country or region is limited it is safe to assume what is being produce in abundance in a particular region that is what is being consume. This situation is most prevalent in the developing or poor countries like Guyana.
2. Sensitizing household food preparation
Food preparation is unique amount people of different cultural or traditional background for example in Guyana the same dish is prepared differently amount different ethnic group. Some of these traditional methods of preparation are unknowingly diminishing the nutritional content of the dish being prepared. For example in Guyana the overcooking and undercooking of food is prevalent in households. This is one of the major reasons why we would sensitize the population on preparation of proper household cooking methods.
3. Informing the public about the benefits of healthy eating
We have to ask ourselves why is eating healthy eating important.
Even though the ideology that healthy eating is good for us is widely known, little or no thought is put into the benefits or how detrimental our consumption habits could be on our body especially in the long run. Therefore we recommend that fundamental ideas be put forward like eating for tomorrow and not just for today promoting a longer life span.
4. Decentralization of the supply channel of perishable produce.
The supply of nutritional produce is not one of question, because if we don’t produce how can we eat healthy to get nutrient. But getting the produce to those who need it can be limited by distance and other environmental factors. So therefore we would decentralize our distribution channel of perishable produce especially in remote areas, rather than having the product produce at one central location. This would reduce the risks of nutritional values being loss during transportation; in addition to that the accessibility of the produce will be increase since it is being provided at a closer location. This could also aid in the problem of over and under consumption of vitamins dues to availability of produce that contains the necessary vitamins. For example in Guyana rural citizens normally consume what is available because of the limited availability of different agricultural produce which is mostly available in the main town.
5. Packaging
Packaging is very important to the supply chain, not only to hold the produce but to preserve the shelf life and retain the nutritional content of what is being package. In addition to that we would place the nutritional content of the produce on the package. This would inform consumers of what they are consuming, the exact nutritional content of the produce. In addition to that this method we would like to capture the busier portion of the population, those who don’t have the time to cook a nutritional household meal. We would create a product that is rich in the basic nutrition needed for daily consumption like the Gerber single for adults; package in a comfortable an attractive manner. Taken into to account the main focus is to provide our population with nutrition and not profit, the best interest would be as such avoiding the mistakes made by Gerber adult single since they produce in an operational efficient manner for them not for the market “Harvard business review why big companies can innovate”.
Final Year Economics Students (group 6) University of Guyana
How can we mobilize the political will necessary to put policies for hunger reduction and improved nutrition higher on the list of political priorities?
Hunger reduction and better nourishment are not high on the agenda of policy makers. The problem is not one of knowledge about nutrition and hunger, policy are well aware of the importance but they fail to take into consideration what impact better nutrition and freedom from hunger has on higher priority objectives . These include high priority objectives such as poverty reduction, literacy improvement and health improvement.
policies makers often believe that if these objectives are achieve, problem such as hunger reduction and better nourishment well correct themselves , for example with the improve income individuals will have better nourishment and cure hunger. What most policy maker s fails to take into consideration is the implications variables such as hunger and nutrition have on achieving high priority objectives such as literacy improvement.
For example policy makers would design policies to improve school accessibility to children, but fail to take into consideration what can impact attendance and performance in school. These factors are usually seeing as exogenous factors in the eyes of policy maker and can be self-corrected if these larger objectives are achieved. In Guyana students, especially at the primary level usually eat breakfast on their way to school. This is not one of high nutritional content usually a cheap aerated drink and biscuit. Some even attend school without breakfast and just a small pocket change for lunch which is similar to the breakfast mention above. Most families cannot afford a more nutritious breakfast, which tend to have great impact on student’s attention span, problem solving abilities and forgetfulness, which greatly hinder academic performance. This would affect academic attainment which also has great implications for poverty reduction, since education is the key to escape poverty for and be self-sustainable not only for Guyanese but most people living in poverty around the world.
Therefore we would recommend a more join policy approach where policy makers design polies and are encourage to incorporated variables such as nutrition and hunger. This could be done by sharing success stories and research findings of programmes that have work jointly on achieving a major objective. For example the school snack programme implemented by ministry of education in Guyana “Mention by final economic student group one”. There is also the school uniform programme which was also implemented by the ministry of education. These too programmes implemented together would have a greater impact on improving literacy in Guyana which is one of the major objectives of the government. The school uniform programme has improve poor families ability to send their children to school while the school snack programme aid in better nutriment and reduce hunger which helps to solve some of the problems mention above that is associated with hunger and academic performance. This is just one example of how policies makers can be encourage placing hunger reduction and better nourishment higher on the list of objectives.
Final Year Economics Students (group 6) University of Guyana
Can you share specific experiences in which social protection and better food security governance have led to advances in local food security and improved nutrition?
Social protection and improved food security governance is crucial to the survival, development and empowerment of the poor in the developing world. Guyana is no exception even with its huge endowment of natural resources and the potential to be a leading exporter of agricultural products in the Caribbean.
The Government of Guyana and donor agencies over the years have become increasingly involved in social protection policies and improved food security for vulnerable groups in society. The recently initiated Rice and Beans project in the hinterland village of Moco-Moco are testament to the move by the government and donor agencies to improve the overall economic and social conditions in these communities. It is argued that prevalence of poverty is higher in hinterland regions, projects such as the Rice and Bean project contribute towards improved incomes for persons within these communities. In addition to increased incomes the village population has access the wider variety of foods in addition to their traditional staple diet which leads to improved nutrition.
The Government of Guyana has also encouraged cooperatives in the quest for greater food security and the United Nations essentially embraced the idea of cooperatives with this year’s World Food Day theme “Coops- the key to food security.” Cooperatives in developing countries can play a pivotal role in ensuring food security and social protection by income generating projects especially through agricultural projects. In Guyana, approximately fifty percent of sugar cane is grown by cooperatives and the private sector. Sugar is one of the largest foreign exchange earners in Guyana hence cooperatives ability to contribute and earn income for their members and increases the overall welfare of the country.
The Mangrove Reserve Women Producers is another example of cooperatives enhancing social protection and food security. This group comprise mostly of women living along communities on the coast of Guyana often they referred to as “country women.” These women have low levels of education or none at all and have little chances of employment in the formal sectors and a culture of male dependence dominates amongst them. Since this group was organized these women were able to produce a variety of products using local knowledge such as cassava bread, coconut biscuits, local drinks, pepper sauces and dried fruits and meats. They have also engaged in small scale farming and gardening in a variety of crops. It is clearly evident that through organization into cooperatives they were able to produce products for market locally and the potentially for international markets and at the same growing their own food.
Can you tell us about policies that led to better nutritional status as a result of investment into agriculture?
INVESTMENT PROMOTION POLICY
Guyana’s investment policy regime includes a wide range of instruments to stimulate
and attract new investments into the agricultural sector.
These include:
1. Tax holidays on pioneering activities
2. Accelerated depreciation
3. Export allowances for non-traditional export outside CARICOM
4. Exemptions on plant, equipment and machinery
5. Exemption of import duty and consumption tax on fish and seafood processing equipment, refrigerated vehicles, packaging material and other inputs for seafood processing
6. Unlimited loss carryover from previous periods
Since 2001, GO-INVEST, the Government of Guyana Investment Agency established in 1994, has been responsible for investment, trade and export promotion activities of the economy. The New Guyana Marketing Corporation (NGMC) is a trade-facilitating institution to support and promote the exports of non-traditional commodities. The NGMC has been mandated to expand the market for local agricultural produce locally, regionally and internationally Agribusiness and marketing entrepreneurs interested in commodity export activities from Guyana are provided with advisory support and information services from GO-INVEST. With regard to export promotion, GO-INVEST provides exporters with trade information, assists in export promotion and advises Government on policy formulation and strategies to stimulate export performance. Investment profiles are also developed to guide investment opportunities. Duty-free imports and tax holidays are also available to investors on the basis of certain defined criteria. Together, GO-INVEST and NGMC are expected to be in the forefront of the new development paradigm to support the sector’s competitiveness. Further, these institutions are expected to undertake the lead role in export trade facilitation and market intelligence as well as monitoring the effectiveness of promotional instruments in support of the sector’s competitiveness.