The Chief Executive Officer of the Berbice rice-milling giant Nand Persaud and Company, Mahendra Persaud has told the Stabroek Business that his company regards the collaborative initiative with the University of Guyana to create a new Soil Testing Laboratory at the University’s Tain Campus as much more than just another philanthropic undertaking.
The head of what has evolved into the country’s most influential rice-milling operation believes that it could be a ‘giant leap forward’ for agriculture in Berbice and beyond where enhancing the sector, both qualitatively and quantitatively continues to be held back by technological limitations.
Persaud sees the optimization of the services which the new laboratory will provide as both reducing risks associated with soil-related crop diseases including saving on investment in the cultivation of crops that could fail on account of soil-related deficiencies. Reliable soil testing, Persaud told Stabroek Business provides a degree of assurance that brings a generous measure of comfort to the farmer regarding the outcome of his investment.
And during the interview with this newspaper Persaud said that the facility was open to farmers seeking that additional assurance that the investment decisions that they are making were likely to pay rewarding dividends.
During the interview Persaud outlined the vision of Nand Persaud and Company for making a ground-breaking contribution to agriculture in Berbice that goes beyond the rice industry. The company’s envisaged new investments, Persaud said, are inextricably linked to the agricultural sector as a whole, extending beyond the rice industry in which they have made an impressive mark over the years.
Not least among the projects which the company is likely to unveil in the immediate future is a joint venture initiative with the aviation company Air Services Ltd to enable the aerial spraying of crops. The project is awaiting the ‘green light’ from the Environmental Protection Agency. (EPA). Nand Persaud and Company will be providing the airstrip while Air Services will be providing the aircraft and crews.
Mindful of the significance of such a response in the face of what he says is a scarcity of labour to undertake a pursuit of that magnitude Persaud says he is keen to see the project satisfying the various environmental
requirements and coming on stream at the earliest possible time.
The company’s future investment plans, some of which are still on the drawing board, include the creation of a bottling plant, which is expected to come on stream in 2020. It is a project which, the company’s CEO says, seeks to help address the high packaging standards required by the agro processing industry if locally manufactured products are to make their mark on the wider global market. Persaud says that a market survey has already been concluded and the earliest evidence of the public promotion of the project was manifested at the recent Berbice Expo.
Meanwhile, Persaud disclosed that the production of bio-degradable food containers and the establishment of a packaging plant for the packaging of animal feed are two further projects under active consideration.
All of this, the Company’s CEO says, derives from an operating strategy which embraces a research and development posture that looks beyond its own immediate pursuits and seeks to determine how it can, through its investments, provide ‘solutions’ for the wider economy. Its commitment, for example, to developing capabilities in the solar technology industry is, Persaud says, inextricably linked to its determination to help push ‘green technology.’
