As part of the government’s continued focus on agriculture, residents and farmers of Karrau Village Region Seven, are to benefit from a $5 million food hub which will consolidate all the agricultural produce from the community at a central location, and provide a ‘ready market’ for the farmers, according to a release from the Department of Public Information.
It explained that a major feature of the hub would be a cold storage facility to store meat and cash crops. It is anticipated that the hub, which will run on solar energy, would be completed by the end of the month and be operational by December, the release said.
The primary focus of this project, the release stated, is to promote village economies by offering small incentives to businesses and community development. Further, the project, which first unfolded in regions One and Nine, had its scope increased last year to include funding for initiatives in Karrau and Agatash in Region Seven and Kato and Paramakatoi in Region Eight.
It is expected to benefit over 650 residents and 16 farmers of Karrau, and miners, loggers, and other communities would be able to purchase fresh produce at the hub.
According to the release, the undertaking is being made possible through the Ministry of Agriculture’s Hinterland Environmentally Sustain-able Agricultural Development Project (HESADP) with funding from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Government of Guyana.
During a community outreach in Karrau on Friday, led by HESADP’s Hinterland Coordinator Raymond Latchman, IFAD’s Country Director Maija Peltola, Toshao of Karrau Shane Cornelius, other representatives of the ministry, village council, and IFAD, residents were informed of the existing small grant project and other future developments to enhance their community, the release said.
Raymond Latchman
Latchman underlined that across the entire programme, 40,000 people are expected to benefit from this project. So far, over 30,000 persons have already benefited, it added.
“We are expecting to surpass that 40,000 target by the end of the year…the target for 2023 is just about 14,000,” the release quoted Latchman as saying. “We are also discussing the possibility of the scaling up of some of these projects. So, we are in discussion for additional financing if we meet the criteria for it,” he added.
Giving an overview of the programme, the hinterland coordinator stated, “We have a couple of projects, here, in Regions Seven and Nine. Those projects are funded through an agreement with the communities where we develop small projects. We work with communities to develop their proposals that are evaluated independently at the Ministry of Agriculture.”
He explained that the ministry proceeds with funding through a contract with the village council or if a producers’ organisation within the village is involved with the project’s implementation after the evaluation is completed and approved, the release said.
Meanwhile, the release said, Peltola explained how the aggregated market will help to diversify the income of the residents, while improving the village’s food security agenda.
“What has happened before is that the farmers have only sold individually and not together. People who were looking for local produce had to go to each farmer to look for this produce. So, now, they will have everything together in this food hub, which is also well located in the town,” she was quoted as saying.
Cornelius highlighted that the hub is part of Karrau’s 10-year plan which focuses on six thematic areas including health, education, livelihood, nature and environment, the release said.
It added that he said the hub will help to boost production, and enhance value-added production in products such as hot pepper sauce and fruit juices.
“It is a central hub where farmers can bring their produce. The village council will purchase the produce wholesale and we will retail it to the residents within the village… It is a new project that we are implementing. We hope that once all of us work together, we can achieve one of our aims which is to have food security within our village. Because we are buying from local farmers, it will be organically produced, thereby contributing to having healthy people within the village,” the release quoted Cornelius as explaining.
With the readily accessible market, Cornelius hoped more Karrau residents would delve into agriculture, the release added.
