A MOU will be signed between the home affairs and agriculture ministries in keeping with plans to revitalize agriculture in the prisons.
According to a Government Information Agency (GINA) press release
Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee said the MOU is based on the Agricultural Business Development plan the Guyana Prison Service (GPS) submitted to the agriculture ministry last year.
In September, Rohee, Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud, Director of Prisons Dale Erskine and senior prison officers held the first round of discussions for the implementation of a plan that it is expected will ensure food self-sufficiency. The GPS once had an active farm that provided some of its food requirements.
According to GINA, Rohee, during his budget presentation in February 2007, had said that government will work towards utilizing the prisons estate to cultivate and rear livestock and produce more food. This will allow some of the money allocated for dietary expenditure to be used in other areas.
GINA said every prisoner costs the State about $19,000 per month. A large sum of the GPS budget is spent on dietary requirements to maintain the prison service.
