A dozen bids have been submitted for the half-a-billion dollar construction of a reinforced concrete foundation for the corn and soya bean conditioning and storage plant at Tacama.
Government has budgeted some $887 million for infrastructure needed to support the large-scale cultivation, which is being done by private investors.
During his budget speech, Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh, had told the National Assembly that government had committed $236 million for the procurement of a drying and storage facility and an additional $225 million installation and other works. A further $426 million, he had said, would be spent to complete the rehabilitation of 47 kilometers of a vital Ituni to Tacama farm-to-market road, starting from the junction of the Linden/Ituni road and heading east towards the Berbice River.
The cultivation is being done by a consortium comprising Guyana Stockfeeds Ltd, Royal Chicken, Edun Farms, SBM Wood, Dubulay Ranch, NF Agriculture, and Bounty Farm Ltd and is expected to lay the foundation for large scale cultivation of corn and soya bean and related agro-business development in the Tacama area. “[It] will open up approximately 61,000 hectares of prime farmland in the Tacama, Wiruni, and Ebini Savannahs on the eastern side of the Berbice River,” Singh had told the National Assembly.
The bids were as follows:
