Improving Agricultural Market Performance:
Creation and Development of Market Institutions
55
needs of farmers and communities in general, can be coordinated. There are, in
addition, several quasi-governmental entities (e.g. SIMAP) as well as non-
governmental and other organizations (co-operatives, producer associations, etc.)
which operate at the community level.
The problems of this system, as identified by Guyana’s National Development Strategy are:
 Poor definition of the roles of the many public and private sector agricultural
institutions, leading to the fragmentation of planning, policy analysis and product
implementation capacity.
 A dualistic institutional structure characterized on the one hand, by well-organized
marketing and other support arrangements for the major export products of rice and
sugar; and by fragmented, under-funded and ineffective arrangements for non-
traditional crops and livestock, on the other.
 A lack of infrastructure and non-agricultural services on which the effectiveness of
agricultural institutions depend. This lack of an integrated approach leads to the poor
absorption of technology.
 Limited interface between Government services and clients in the agriculture sector,
resulting in poor feedback and, consequently, a lack of relevance of plans and
programs.
 Provision of public agricultural services, including livestock/animal health and post-
harvest handling, to all farmers, regardless of means. More well-off farmers can afford
to, and do, bring in their own private extension advisers, which poorer farmers cannot.
Since extension services are provided free of charge, poorer farmers should have
priority, and/or fees charged to more prosperous clients.
 NARI: inadequate contact between NARI and farmers; poor linkages with agricultural
extension and other related organizations; inadequate evaluation of research impact;
disconnect between research programs and the needs of the farming community;
insufficient consideration to the economic and marketing components of production;
ineffective validation of research findings before transferring them to the farmer;
absence of agribusiness and socio-economic marketing experts on the staff.
 Lack of agricultural credit.
In view of these weaknesses of the system of agricultural market institutions, Guyana in its
National Development Strategy resolved to create a new entity, the Guyana Agricultural
Research and Development Board to perform the functions of NARI, NDDP, NGMC and the
Crops and Livestock and Fisheries Departments of the Ministries. The membership of the
Board was designed to be broad-based, and include all interests that are involved in the sector:
local Government bodies; community organizations; representatives of the rice and sugar
sectors, and representatives of training institutions.
In the event, this transformation did not take place as initially planned. NARI, however,
renamed the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) was given