The Context

Guyana is an upper-middle-income country and the third smallest country in South America. It is home to about 745,000 people, the majority of whom live in rural areas. Three in four rural people are poor.

Guyana became an oil producing country in 2019. Since then, GDP growth has been the highest in the region, reaching 63 per cent in 2022. It also has one of the highest rates of emigration in the world, with over half of its citizens living abroad.

About 17 per cent of the population work in agriculture, which is primarily undertaken by smallholder farmers. While agriculture’s share of GDP has dropped in recent decades, the COVID-19 crisis has re-ignited Guyana’s ambition to become the breadbasket of the Caribbean and reduce its food import bill. 

Indigenous Peoples, called Amerindians, use a rotational system of shifting agriculture, with most families cultivating cassava. 

The Strategy

Taking advantage of trends, such as agri-tourism and gastronomy, IFAD supports rural people in producing and consuming foods that are nutritious, local, sustainable and affordable.  

Key activities include: 

• supporting communities, particularly Amerindian communities, in identifying investment opportunities to manage economic and climate risk; 

• investing in community-driven business plans and collective investment plans that improve access to key services;  

• raising awareness of development challenges related to gender, nutrition and environmental sustainability; 

• strengthening the knowledge and capacity of government institutions to engage with small-scale producers and marginalized groups; and 

• contributing to policies on poverty reduction and natural resource management.