A simple soil turning ceremony was yesterday held for the construction of a $327 million asphaltic concrete road at Onverwagt, West Coast Berbice, which Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha said is one of six farm-to-market roads to be built this year.
Speaking at the ceremony, Mustapha said three of the roads will be constructed in Region Five.
“I see many, many farmers will benefit from this road, more than 30,000 acres of rice can be now [planted], new lands can be planted,” he said of the 5-kilometre road.
He noted that with the new road, farmers will have access to the area throughout the year despite the weather conditions and the cost of production and the maintenance of machinery would be greatly reduced.
In his address at the ceremony, Mustapha said the government plans to modernise and upgrade infrastructure throughout the country.
Shortly after he took up office, some of the first issues raised with him were dilapidated structures, clogged canals and impassible dams in the Mahaica/Mahaicony and Abary (MMA) Scheme. “…The farmers who represented those issues said that they would be unable to take out their crops—that was the last crop—if government did not start emergency works across the scheme,” he said, while noting that at the time there was no budget in place.
However, at his first Cabinet meeting, he said, he made representation for funds to carry out emergency works in the scheme and also wages for GuySuCo workers.
“Right here in the MMA Scheme we have expended $90 million to clear a number of canals. We also had $29 million that was given to us to do repairs to dams and those infrastructure [works] were done,” he said
He stressed, that in order to develop the agriculture sector then funds must be made available for investments. “When we develop our agriculture sector, we will create jobs, we will create wealth but more importantly we will have food security in our country, and that is why as a government we believe investments in infrastructure are required to make the agriculture sector viable and sustainable,” he added.
Without key investment in infrastructure, Mustapha stressed, “service delivery” may not take place. “If we want to improve production and productivity then as facilitator, as a government, we have to put the necessary infrastructure in place to ensure that we complement the farmers so that they can produce, they can expand their output in the agriculture sector,” he said.
Additionally, he pointed out, that they have also been focusing on expanding and strengthening the drainage and irrigation system “and that is why for this year, the new year, we will be seeing almost six new farm to market roads across our country. In Region Five here, alone, you will have three of those roads that I am talking about.”
He added that some critical works have already been completed across the country in an effort to improve the infrastructure for the benefit of farmers. “I am happy to say that a number of canals, a number of dams, and a number of critical infrastructure were repaired across our country,” he noted.
Meanwhile, Mustapha said that NDIA engineers would be monitoring the project but suggested that farmers within the area form a committee to also monitor “the progress of this road so that we can have value for our money.”
“We must at all times have value for our money when we do these infrastructure. We must not do a road today and then in a year or two it break up. We must ensure that when we do a road here the next year we can go to another community rather than to come here to repair this one,” he stressed.
The contractor is Romel Jagroop of Romel Jagroop General Construction Services.
Jagroop noted that as a farmer himself he was happy to be a part of the project.
Also present at yesterday’s ceremony was the Minister of Finance Ashni Singh, Director General of the Ministry of Agriculture Madanlall Ramraj, Chairman of the NDIA Board, Lionel Wordsworth, CEO of NDIA Fredrick Flatts, Regional Chairman of Region Five Vickchand Ramphal and Regional Vice Chairman of Region Five Rion Peters.
