Two hundred and fifty-six Region Two farming households will benefit from three sub-projects valued at more than $21 million under a US$1.5M Small Farmers Livelihood Programme (SFLP) funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and executed by the CHF Partners in Rural Development.
The project was officially launched last week at the IDB’s Main Street office and 12 more sub-projects will follow in Regions Three, Four, Five and Six over the next four years. Representatives from the three sub-projects co-signed the SFLP agreements with the Canadian High Commissioner Charles Court and the IDB. The Combined Farmers Venture, representing farmers from Supenaam River, Bethany Mission and Mashabo Mission received $6,973,000. The Southern Essequibo Farmers Association, representing farmers between the villages of Aurora and Onderneeming received $6,985,000. And Cowesdart Farmers Group, representing farmers of Dartmouth, Westbury and Cozier Canal received $7,806,000. Each of the sub-projects, expected to begin next month, will run for 12 months but has a maximum of 18 months to be completed.
Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud, in brief remarks at the signing ceremony said the agriculture sector was at a point where it must be taken to the next level; intensifying exports. According to Persaud, this year the country is set to record its largest figure in the exports of non-traditional crops and the SFLP, he explained, will complement and increase growth in the sector. He said the traditional sector must also be viable even though, through the years, it has gone through some hard times. However, the non-traditional sector of fruits, vegetables and livestock needed the support. Whatever the nation produces, “there must be a market,” the minister said, adding that projects such as these would bring about a change in the mindset of farmers and allow them to see themselves as entrepreneurs as well. Through the SFLP, the bank will provide financial support to increase revenue and to establish market linkages for the small farmers; targeting 1,200 households in the five regions under consideration.
Persaud also said that there was need to ensure that the infrastructure and systems were developed to facilitate these exports. In this regard, the concept of clusters was said to be important since individual farmers cannot survive in the globalised agricultural environment when they are competing with subsidized farm products from Europe and North America. The minister said they needed to work together to market their products more economically.
Head of Aid at CIDA Mark Mostovac told Stabroek News that with the success of the Building Community Capacity Project (BCCP) in Guyana and now the SFLP they plan to introduce similar projects in the Caribbean. The SFLP was conceptualized in 2006 by the CHF Guyana office while executing the BCCP, which is in its second phase. Over the last ten years CIDA has worked with the Guyana Rice Producers Association under the CHF.
Mostovac said the farmers will be planting tomatoes, beans, bora, pineapples and other non-traditional crops. CIDA is providing about US$700,000 while the IDB is financing US$830,000.
IDB Resident Representative Marco Nicola said the Social Entrepreneurship Programme’s (SEP) SFLP is consistent with the bank’s commitment to support the government’s development vision. Nicola said it aims to increase productivity and diversify the country’s export base without loosing sight of the need to reduce poverty. The IDB has provided financial and technical support to the competitiveness programme and the bank’s board is to approve US$22 million for an Agriculture Diversification Programme early next month. The SEP was developed in 1998 with the aim of promoting social equity and the economic development of poor and/or disadvantaged groups. It currently benefits 26 countries within Latin America and the Caribbean and provides from US$7 million to US$10 million in financing each year to projects in these countries.
The SFLP was approved in April 2007, Nicola said, and represents an opportunity for the bank to respond to the specific needs in Guyana with respect to the extensive poverty of small non-traditional farmers; the inadequate integration of productive activities and market opportunities of these small farmers and the difficulty in providing extension services in more remote areas of the country. It is expected that at the end of this project, these poor farming households would have been able to increase their income significantly through sustainable agricultural, processing and marketing practices.
The CHF is an international non-governmental organization with over 40 years experience managing more than 800 projects in more than 40 countries in the Americas, Africa and Asia.
