Consistent with its responsibility to deliver a robust food security regime, both at home and as part of its commitment to the wider Carib-bean, the Government of Guyana is pouring “heavy investments (and) innovative techniques” into the bolstering of the country’s agricultural sector, according to a release issued by the Department of Public Information (DPI) earlier this week.
At home, coming on the back of what the DPI says is a commitment to the introduction of shade house farming in communities that include Moblissa, on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway, the release quotes Agri-culture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha, as saying that the administration was using ‘heavy investments (and) innovative techniques” in order to bolster the country’s agriculture sector. According to the DPI report, the Minister placed the political administration’s focus on the country’s agriculture sector within the context of the “critical role agriculture plays in meeting the increasing demand for food in Guyana and the region.” Not for the first time, the Govern-ment of Guyana has found itself at the helm of a regional initiative to bolster food security.
This time around it has to shoulder that responsibility when the Caribbean has been specifically identified as a region afflicted by pockets of food insecurity. Guyana and Barbados have, together, been assigned the creation of a regional food terminal, with the terminal itself to be located in Barbados and much of the food that will stock the facility expected to come from Guyana. Against the backdrop of the additional food security-related responsibilities that have now been placed on the shoulders of the country’s agricultural sector, the Govern-ment of Guyana, the DPI report says, “is investing heavily in agricultural research, technology, and infrastructure, to improve the efficiency and productivity of farmers.” Additionally, the report says that the administration is seeking to reduce the impact of climate change on the food sector. Of the incumbent political administration, the Agriculture Minister is quoted as saying “our government is channeling our energy and resources to Guyanese in every area and is giving greater importance to our productive sector, especially agriculture in an effort to meet the current food demands in Guyana as well as the Region.”
During his engagement with farmers in the community of Moblissa on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway, the Agriculture Minister is reported to have expressed a commitment to ensuring that the farmers there embrace Shade House farming as a tool for consolidating the overall growth of agriculture in the community. The Agriculture Minister, according to the DPI report, undertook to engage the National Agricul-tural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) with regard to the building of a “small shade house” similar to others which he said are slated to be created “along West Coast Berbice……… so that you can have your own planting materials.” The DPI report on the Agricul-ture Minister’s visit to Moblissa states that “more than 100 shade houses (were) established “at the end of 2022,” a circumstance which he said had been supported by government through the continuous supply of materials to farmers, including farm equipment, seeds and seedlings, chemicals and fertilizers.
The DPI release also alluded to the allocation of an additional $200 million to the 2023 budget which the statement said would “increase production by 50 per cent and will see over 100 new young agri-entrepreneurs benefitting.”
