Rice, the world’s largest food staple, has been one of the main players in the global food crisis caused by COVID-19. Three-quarters of world rice exports from Asian countries such as India and Thailand have been affected by chain-of-origin disruptions and export discounts due to considerations of national food security and droughts caused by climate change. The resulting volatility has created market opportunities for small producers, such as the South American country of Guyana, to increase production to meet developing demand.
With the highest level of rice production per capita in the world (FAOSTAT, 2018), Guyana produces almost ten times as much rice compared to India. The 2018 knowledge of the Food and Agriculture Organization of more than 120 rice-producing countries of the Food and Agriculture Organization of more than 120 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) ranks Guyana 21st in rice yield (hg/hectare) and 39th overall production globally, with some of its annual production exported to more than 30 countries. Despite its small size, Guyana is the thirteenth net exporter of rice in the world. (globalstopexports.com)
Unlike its Asian counterparts, Guyana’s rice industry has not stopped through COVID-19. The Guyana Rice Development Council (GRDB) reported a thirteen-cent increase in rice exports between January and May 2020 in 2019.
But the economic promise of rice to the population of Guyana is neither gender-blind nor environmentally neutral. Guyana’s high vulnerability to climate change, particularly in its coastal areas, coupled with limited opportunities for women in agriculture, create uncertainty, instability and inefficiency in a number of areas. If rectified, these can fuel a more economically and environmentally resilient future for the Guyanese rice industry.
Over the years, adjustments in rainfall and temperature due to climate change have led to floods, droughts and the accumulation of pests, diseases and weeds, all of which have affected production. A 2012 World Bank report ranked floods as the greatest threat to Guyana’s rice sector and drought as number 3. Saltwater intrusion due to emerging sea grades and more powerful typhoon surges is also a major problem, resulting in a 16% drop in rice production in 2016.
The gender labour department in the agricultural sector means that reports by climate-replacement farmers are radically different from those of their male counterparts. There are significant differences in reports of families led by women and men, women in male-led families and between single-parent families (FAO, 2010).
In 2018, Guyana ranked 123 out of 189 countries in the Gender Inequality Index, confirming that there is indeed a “gender gap” between men and women. But since maximum agricultural knowledge is damaged across gender, there is limited quantitative evidence of the magnitude of gaps in this sector.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) reports that 9% of Guyanese women are hired in agriculture, compared to more than 22% of men (2019). Women interested in agriculture do so as an unpaid circle of family members who simultaneously care about youth care and family tasks, thus experiencing greater vulnerability, less access to resources and decreased productivity than their male counterparts.
In the face of climate change, women are deprived of differences in access to data on the most productive agricultural practices and the near climate. This disadvantage compared to men affects the decision-making force of women farmers, making it difficult for uncertainties posed by unpredictable weather conditions.
Women also have particularly lower levels of land ownership than men. Even among families led by women farmers, women have no name on their land. This results in less access to land resources and income, such as water, financing and technology.
Since rice is water-intensive, requiring 3000-5000 liters of water to produce 1 kg of staple food, climate interaction replaces occasions such as drought, with women’s inequality in water resources, exacerbates production inefficiencies, and reinforces gender inequalities.
Providing women with assets equivalent to keys such as “land, technology, money services, education and markets” can simply increase women’s agricultural production by 20-30% and increase overall agricultural production by 2.5 to 4%, with major implications. poverty and nutrition. (FAO)
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) states that “gender equality in relatives and the point of the network leads to superior and progressive agricultural outcomes, adding greater agricultural productivity and a more advanced circle of relative nutrition”.
The rice sector is of paramount importance to smallholder farmers, with a giant number of manufacturers operating on farms of less than 4.5 hectares, making them vulnerable to the effects of climate replacement. Most farmers belong to this group. Technologies for resilience and adaptation to climate change among smallholder farmers would gain advantages in sustainably expanding productivity and empowering women.
Moreover, “because gender-differentiated vulnerabilities to the effects of climate replacement are the cumulative result of a complex diversity of socio-cultural, structural and institutional inequities, climate-smart agriculture and similar efforts deserve to seek the foundation of women’s resources and ensure that women’s contributions to productivity and food security are widely appreciated. Correcting gender vulnerabilities and the dynamics of unequal forces in agriculture would help ensure their effectiveness and sustainability (UNDP, 2016).
Launched in 2019, the Caribbean Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Cooperation Initiative, funded through Canada’s Global Affairs, is being implemented with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to assist CARICOM members through a pre-investment fund for the drafting and negotiation of funds. for gender-sensitive climate replacement allocations, such as the REACT allocation, which, if approved for funding, will have a direct effect on 40,000 small producers in Guyana’s coastal communities by improving their climate resistance. This task is unique in that it addresses adaptation to climate replacement from a gender-sensitive perspective.
The desire to create a punctual game box and compensate for the climatic and gfinisher inefficiencies is more critical than ever. The United Nations World Food Programme has predicted that the crisis will almost double the number of people facing severe food confidence until the end of 2020 to approximately 265 million.
Jean Balié, director of studies at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), estimates that in the context of the current global food crisis, rice will play an important role in the nutrition of nearly 30% of the world’s population. According to FAO, “if farmers had the same productive resources as men (e.g. land), the number of other malnourished people could be reduced by 12 to 17 per cent.” (FAO)
This is an opportunity for Guyana to develop its source of rice; however, in order to meet the growing global call for rice, it is imperative to address vulnerabilities in climate substitution and gender inequalities.
I am an environmental editor specializing in food and agriculture and between the southern Caribbean (Barbados) and the northern Caribbean (Cayman Islands). I
I am an environmental editor specializing in food and agriculture and between the southern Caribbean (Barbados) and the northern Caribbean (Cayman Islands). I have a master’s degree in foreign economic policy from Columbia University and am passionate about the social, economic and environmental problems of the Caribbean. I am intrigued by the resilience of the region’s new island states and the opportunities for sustainable and regenerative expansion through agriculture. I recently directed communications for a fisheries climate replacement assignment (CC4FISH) at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and worked in progressive banks, non-profit environmental organizations and the venture capital industry. My paintings have been published in a wide variety of Caribbean newspapers and magazines, the Sunday Times (London), Elite Daily, Elephant Journal and other publications. Follow me on Twitter on @daphneewingchow, on Facebook on @daphneewingchowpublisher or linkedin @daphneewingchow