The Ministry of Agriculture will be rolling out the Black Belly Sheep programme shortly as 850 of the animals have been received to date from Barbados and it is expecting the remaining 100 to arrive soon.
This was disclosed by Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha during an interview with the Department of Public Information (DPI) on the sidelines of an event on Monday.
According to DPI, this specific breed is primarily raised for meat and other high-demand by-products and Guyana has enough land, suitable climate, and all other requirements for increasing the production of the sheep. “I am hoping within a few weeks from now we can get that but we’ll start to roll out the programme shortly. I will not wait until the 100 arrive. We have close to about 850 now in the country,” the minister stated.
The DPI also noted that Chief Executive Officer (ag) of the Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA), Dr. Dwight Walrond is working along with farmers to ensure the smooth roll out of the programme. “Dr. Walrond is working because we already have several farmers who would have registered and who want to get in the programme,” Mustapha informed. President Irfaan Ali, in March 2022, launched the programme in Region Five with an estimated $600 million (US$3 million) investment.
In August 2022, the ministry received 132 sheep which included 112 ewes and 20 rams from Barbados, which is part of a collaboration between the two countries to build a regional brand of sheep that will decrease the import of lamb and mutton products into CARICOM. The DPI quoted Mustapha that, “this will add to the country and the region’s efforts to minimise the Caribbean’s almost US$5 billion food import bill by 25 per cent by 2025.”
