As part of the ‘Government comes to you’ outreach, Minister of Public Telecommunications, Catherine Hughes, on Tuesday met with Berbice farmers at the University of Guyana’s Tain Campus, Berbice, to introduce her ministry’s new initiative.
A Department of Public Information (DPI) report stated that the initiative is a mobile application for farmers which the minister and her team guaranteed would provide new prospects in their service to customers. Some of the benefits from this app include international trade, employment and transportation opportunities which will allow farmers to have a better understanding of their stocks’ market value. In her address to the farmers, Hughes noted that countries in the region lacked fertile agricultural soil and therefore those countries had to rely on international trade for basic crops such as cassava. She added that local farmers have an advantage since the country’s 83,000 square miles allows them the benefit of diversified cultivation. According to the DPI, the ministry’s technical team held an introductory session where they demonstrated some of the features of the app that allow the user to view the demand for produce on the local and international markets, and assist them in promoting their produce to broader markets in a more tech savvy manner.
Hughes also announced that specialised training, for at least four weeks, would be provided for farmers to become acquainted with the mobile application to ensure that they could fully utilise its potential.