Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Pauline Sukhai recently visited Region One communities where projects such as crab rearing and passion fruit cultivation under the Hinterland Secure Livelihoods Programme were inspected.

The pilot project has been implemented in 15 communities in Region One.

It provides employment, food security and generates income, a press release from the Government Information Agency (GINA) said. Sukhai visited Tobago, Hobodai, Hotoquai, Arukamai, Kamwatta, Whitewater and Wauna to determine the progress of the projects such as aquaculture, crab rearing and the cultivation of pineapples and passion fruits.

The project entails farmers utilising new techniques. They benefit from technical support from the Volunteer Services Overseas (VSO) and national volunteers.

At Tobago, a small and relatively new fishing community, aquaculture is being practiced.

The ministry helped to set up an aquaculture farm and in order to speed up the process of building the two nurseries and two ‘grow out’ ponds, it bought an excavator for the community as it expects that it will be able to supply fish on a large scale, for domestic use.

At Imbotero residents purchase small crabs from local crab gatherers and rear them until adulthood. Normally crab catching is a major economic activity in the area; the pilot project has therefore expanded the village’s economy. And, at Whitewater, Hotoquai, Hobodai and Wauna more than 40 acres of passion fruit have been cultivated.

According to GINA, the honey project which started in November is being expedited in Arukamai, Hobodai and Hotoquai. Since this project is new to farmers, several training workshops were held to educate beekeepers.

About 44 beekeepers were trained to build hives, operate equipment used in handling bees and were trained to capture bees.

Andrew Da Silva, a farmer from Arukamai, praised government for starting the project in his community. He said, “We have achieved a lot…Presently we have 38 hives with bee and we have like 50 hives overall and I say that is an achievement for our group.”Meanwhile, 15 farmers are engaged in cultivating ginger at Arukamai. It is expected that the produce will be ground to make ginger powder and ginger grinder was bought from India through the National Agri-cultural Research Institute.

“Great prospects are ahead for pineapple crops in Region One,” GINA noted. Accord-ing to Sukhai negotiations are ongoing with Amazon Cari-bbean Guyana Ltd (AMCAR) and they are prepared to purchase the fruit to produce pineapple chunks for export to France.