A $2M fund is to be opened to assist agriculture students who have sound agri-business plans, Minister Robert Persaud said at the Guyana School of Agriculture (GSA) graduation exercise on Friday where eighty-three students graduated.
Twenty-six students graduated with a Diploma in Agriculture; ten with a Diploma in Animal Health and Veterinary Public Health; fourteen with a Certificate in Agriculture; twenty-five with a Diploma in Forestry and eight with a Diploma in Fisheries Studies.
Minister Persaud who delivered the feature address said that the fund is an indication of his ministry’s commitment and determination that GSA graduates become successful agricultural entrepreneurs.
The minister told the graduating class that they play a significant part in the future of the country since they now have the agricultural skills that the sector is in dire need of in order to provide the food that the country and the Caribbean at large needs.
He urged the students to be pioneers in utilizing lands in Guyana’s interior locations for agricultural purposes as the effects of climate change will eventually force the agri-sector in that direction.
In his charge to the graduands, Chancellor of the Judiciary (ag) Carl Singh, told the students that they will play a pivotal role in the national well-being since agriculture is the only real assurance of survival in today’s world.
He charged the students to take the message of the importance of agriculture to survival back to their communities. Singh said that they are to assume the role of teachers and help farmers to adapt to new measures and ways of agricultural production; but at the same time not close off themselves from the advice of the “barefooted, unschooled farmer who considers himself an expert in his own right.”
He also urged the students to be patriots and give back to the system which has given so much to them.
Meanwhile Deputy Principal Compton Hinds who delivered the Principal’s report highlighted the numerous field operations students were involved in, giving them a better outlook and understanding of operations in the agricultural sector.
He said that the new initiative of remedial classes in Mathematics and English for students at GSA is a welcome move, and he expressed thanks to the National Centre for Education Resource Development (NCERD) for the CDs they provided to assist with the programme.
Hinds also noted that a branch of GSA is to be opened on the Essequibo Coast in September.
Meanwhile, students who shone at the ceremony include Best Graduating Student Vanita Ramnarain, who was awarded the Principal’s Prize and three other awards within the Certificate in Fisheries Studies. Elaine Cunningham, a Jamaican student walked off with ten awards from categories within the Diploma in Animal Health and Veterinary Public Health. David Pusselwhyte won seven awards from seven categories within the Diploma in Agriculture. Dara Singh got six awards within categories in the Certificate in Forestry and Adrian Hansraj took away five awards within the Certificate in Agriculture.
