Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha says the black belly sheep project is aggressively moving ahead, the Department of Public Information (DPI) reported on January 1st.
“I am hoping that the remaining set will be coming (from Barbados) before the (end of the) first quarter of 2023. We have already started the preparations in terms of building the pens, building the pastures, and getting things in order”, Mustapha said.
He was speaking on Friday at the East Demerara Water Conservancy, Cane Grove, East Coast Demerara during an inspection of three amphibious excavators.
“The 436 black belly sheep that are in Guyana, they are presently at the farms at the Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA).
As a matter of fact, we have had some increases because some of them have given birth. By mid-June, the programme should get going aggressively,” Mustapha said.
The aim is to allow the Caribbean to develop its own brand, replacing the New Zealand and Australian lamb being imported into the region.
The breed is primarily raised for meat and other high-demand by-products.
The minister told DPI that, “by the third quarter, I think everything should be in place. We should activate the process …by getting the farmers to start the process and they will receive their quota so that we could start the plan that we want to create. That initiative is moving apace.”
The first cargo of 132 sheep, including 20 rams and 112 ewes, landed in Guyana in August, 2022.
The programme was launched with an estimated $600 million (US$3 million) investment from the administration, and a flock of 1,000 sheep expected to arrive.
In the national budget last year, $177.7 million was set aside for additional funding to support the promising project.