Agriculture will be a prime focus for Region Ten this year with a number of initiatives planned including the development of 500,000 acres of farmland under the auspices of the Madena Co-Op Society Limited.
Regional Democratic Council (RDC) chairman Renis Morian announced the plans following a meeting with chair of the Agriculture Committee, a statement yesterday from the RDC said. In the meeting, they were able to decide on a number of initiatives, projects and programmes which, he said, will help in boosting the agriculture sector significantly.
It was pointed out that the region’s first agriculture co-op society, Madena Co-op Society Limited, which has been operating on 500,000 plus acres of land, has held discussions with the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) to assist with some drainage-related issues. Morian said that the NDIA has agreed to pay a visit in the new week, while they will explore opportunities and avenues with the view of lending support to the co-op society.
“We have a project document that we are about to complete which will be sent to the Minister of Agriculture for some support in this area, and we are working to complete this document so that we can get going,” Morian was quoted as saying.
Pointing out that the co-op society has already began working, Morian disclosed that they are now seeking to have some 300 lime, 300 orange, as well as 300 sour-sop plants planted in the first quarter of the year, in addition to the regular cash crops that they will be planting. To further boost the knowledge and skills of those working with the co-op society, an exploration visit has already been planned with the view of examining and/or modelling their farms after what they have seen so as to enhance the continued development of agriculture, the statement said. One such visit has been made to examine and review what other farmers are doing.
The regional chairman also said that there will be a major focus on investors. “My focus this year…is to concentrate on investment in agriculture. I must say that there are several investors who are waiting and are awaiting because they have several issues so we are hoping to build up a better relationship with (the) Lands and Surveys (Commission) so that these things can be processed more quickly. We also want to have a better working relationship with (the NDIA) because as you know, they play a very integral part in terms of drainage and now they are tasked with doing drainage all over the country which is good for us,” he was quoted as saying.
“We plan a visit to the Minister of Agriculture before now and month end as we want to outline to him what we have planned and therefore we are seeking his support. I must add that we went to Ebini and we are extremely impressed by what the Ministry of Agriculture is doing in Ebini so the fact that I took my councillors there is a view for us, not in terms of scale, but in terms of focus, to replicate what is happening there,” he added.
Meanwhile, Morian pointed out that because of the agricultural works at Millie’s Hideout, they have begun working on the road expansion. “We are using our own equipment plus with the support from residents, we are able to widen the road as we seek to create a farm to market road there,” he said.
In addition, they will seek to push agriculture in schools and establish shade houses at the various secondary schools in the region including Multilateral, New Silver City Secondary, Linden Foundation and Wisburg. The regional chairman said that his administration is looking at a regional model experimental farm and it would be executed within one of the schools’ compound but managed by the region.
“It’s an experimental project so shortly we will be going out and looking at several schools, their security among other things so as to decide which school this project would be best suited for in terms of land availability,” he was quoted as saying. Morian said that students will be able to participate in the project even as he emphasised that agriculture will continue to play a major role in the development of Guyana and the region has the funding for such an initiative.
The statement said that the RDC has commenced plans for the Region’s Food and Agricultural Exhibition which is slated for September and they hope to undertake a number of activities in the lead-up to the event.
According to Morian, they are seeking to have some traditional foods that several young people are unfamiliar with at the food fairs that the region will be hosting. “They were some young people who came here and when I asked them about quinches, they don’t know about congotec, they didn’t know about a lot of food that forms part of our culture so we are hoping that in these agricultural exhibitions, we can introduce this and not just have the food, but have the method in how it is made,” he said.
