To the indifferent it may seem like a modest even inconsequential project. Modest agricultural projects accompanied by even more modest chicken-rearing initiatives are a dime a dozen in rural communities. The components of this project are tucked away in two small and decidedly unimposing East Coast Demerara villages, its execution costs sufficiently modest to hardly merit mention; and yet, for the members of the Mangrove Reserve Producers Cooperative Society (MRPCS) the current assignment underpins the very essence of their being. It is an assignment that seeks, simultaneously, to bind communities and to transform lives.
The mission of the cooperative bears an uncanny resemblance to the financial backer of its mission. The Rural Enterprise Agricultural Development (READ), funded by the International Fund for International Development (IFAD) and executed through the Ministry of Agriculture, provides financial and technical backing for agricultural projects that help build poor rural communities.
On Saturday the members of the Cooperative Society were putting the finishing touches to a chicken pen in the