The National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) is reporting that production of sweet peppers by local farmers last year reduced the country’s food import bill by $20 million.
A release received by the Stabroek Business from NAREI’s Mon Repos headquarters links the breakthrough in sweet pepper production to the Institute’s “focus extensively on increasing crop production and enhancing diversification.”
The release says that in 2018, production of “non-traditional crops” would increase by at least 2.5 percent, pointing to its work with the Canadian-backed Promotion of Regional Opportunities for Produce through Enterprise and Linkages (PROPEL) in the local cultivation and potato and onions as a possible contributory factor.