-processing hub for Bonasika
An entrepreneurship programme targeting especially youth and women will be launched in the small Essequibo farming village of Bonasika and President Irfaan Ali also announced that the planned CARICOM ferry will operate from Parika.
To complement a planned agro-processing plant in Bonasika and give farmers in Region Three access to regional markets for their produce, Ali said that the expected regional ferry service plying the Trinidad, Guyana and Barbados routes will dock and operate from the Parika Stelling.
“We want to get the bananas into the regional market and the good thing about here is that we could export directly to CARICOM from here. You don’t need to transport to Georgetown and all these places. That is why we are pushing so hard to get the regional ferry because the regional ferry will operate out of Parika so that we can have all of these production from these islands integrated into the regional market,” the President told residents of Bonasika, Region Three during a visit there yesterday.
“So what is it we want to do now? First of all… [We will] launch in this community, a group of young people and women, the Agricultural Entrepre-neurship Innovation programme. We’re going to launch that programme here.”
The President had last week stated that technical assessments for the ferry service would be completed by the end of this month. He had also informed that the Guyana, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago initiative saw the setting up of a “working group with ministers and the technical people.”
Together, they “have completed and are going through all the phytosanitary requirement items that we can start with. They’re examining the Guyana/Suriname model, in terms of the movement of vehicles, the insurance use, quarantine issues and all of these things, and a technical team will conclude an analysis as to the port facilities; what will be required to adjust the port facilities for the vessel to land,” the President explained.
It is unclear what adjustments would have to be made at the Parika stelling to allow for it to be the main ferry port stop here.
Yesterday, Ali said that the Ministry of Agriculture will “identify 300 acres of land that we’re going to work with you on, because one of the problems we have with the plantain facility in Parika is that we have inconsistent supply. When the farmers get high price they sell on the open market; forget that we have the processing plant. So, we want this agricultural entrepreneurship innovation programme to be the prime supplier of that facility.”
In addition, government will work with the residents on “the capital investment.” In this way, Ali promised, government will facilitate discussions with local banks in making financing accessible to the farmers.
“We’re going to bring the banks in to work with us, and we’re going to provide all the technical support,” he explained. It is unclear how this process would be done or if government intends to be guarantor for the high- risk loan financing schemes.
He explained that Guyana wants to expand the production of cassava so that produce can be exported to countries within the CARICOM bloc, initially.
Local farmers here have also been able to secure a market for hot pepper in St. Lucia. “We just got a market in St. Lucia for hot pepper but we are working with a local company on the processing of pepper also,” Ali noted.
But a main focus, he said, was empowering women and getting into agricultural entrepreneurship was one such way, especially those in far flung communities.
For Bonasika, he said that if women there are interested in opening apiaries, then government would train them. “We’re going to train some women in beekeeping. We’re going to give you all the protective gear and facilities and we are going to help you to start honey production here in Bonasiika also. We want to create the enabling environment for the food hub,” he asserted.
Outside of the setting up of the facility for the processing of ginger, the beekeeping, and the integrated 300- acre farm, the President said that Bonasika is “well placed for aquaculture production because you have the salted water, the brackish water.”
“We can look at whether we can do the brackish water, that we do in Region Six; the swamp shrimp, whether we can do the swamp shrimp here,” he added.
Giving timelines for commencement, Ali said that the residents should within six weeks expect to see “cage farming” brought to their community. “Under this agriculture entrepreneurship innovation program, we are going to bring cage farming to your community,” he said.
“So these are some of the new things that we are going to try. This is a new production system we’re going to build, as we build out a sustainable food ecosystem here,” he added.
