Caribbean Net News (Ray Chickrie and Shabnam Ali): On Sunday, November 15, 2009, the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) announced that it will provide an additional US$1 billion for agricultural development in poor countries, which will benefit member states of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), of which Guyana is a member.

This announcement came on the eve of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), Rome World Summit on Food and Security. An agreement to provide the additional US$1 billion was concluded between Ahmad Mohamed Ali, president of IsDB, and Jacques Diof, Director-General of the FAO. This will bring the total IDB investments with FAO to US$5.0 billion.

These funds will be disbursed within the framework of the Jeddah Declaration, which was approved by the IDB Board of Governors in June 2008 to finance priority projects in the 26 least developed member countries of the IsDB. Under the Jeddah Declaration, the FAO will provide the necessary technical support for the formulation and implementation of projects being funded.

According to Odeen Ishmael, Guyana's Ambassador to Venezuela, Guyana has proposed the establishment of a special fund to assist poor countries with food security. Ishmael renewed this call in Caracas during a recent forum held by the Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA) on food security in the region.

Guyana is seeking global backing for its agriculture program, "The Jagdeo Initiative on Agriculture."

Guyana attained membership to the OIC in 1998 but has only recently begun serious diplomatic engagement with oil-rich members of the OIC such as Bahrain, Kuwait, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Libya, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. Guyana could benefit from this fund in its quest to modernize and strengthen its agricultural sector.

According to the IDB release, for too long the international community has neglected agriculture and only now recognizes the importance of supporting smallholder agriculture as the key to food security. This agreement could not come at a better time for Guyana in its pursuit to be the bread basket once again in the Caribbean region and to explore [un]traditional markets in North America and Europe.

Guyana should seek to tap into this huge reservoir of available funds to realize its "grow more food" campaign.

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