100 small farmers from Crabwood Creek will be receiving help through the Ministry of Agriculture to set up a shade house each on their land to plant peppers to be able to supply an agro processing plant in Black Bush Polder – a new pilot strategy which is being embarked on by the government to assist small farmers in that area.
President Irfaan Ali last Thursday held a walkabout in Crabwood Creek, Upper Corentyne, where he met with residents, farmers, fisherfolk, sugar workers and others. At the location, he urged the ministry to embark on the pilot programme in the community so as to assist the small farmers with a faster turnaround of revenue.
Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha, explained that in order to help small farmers and women “the first phase will be a hundred farmers from Crabwood Creek, we will help to construct it (shade house), we will give the design, you have to provide the material in terms of the wooden material, we will give the shade nets and the shade plastic, we will help you to construct it.”
The size of each shade house is expected to be 25 ft by 34 ft with the ministry assisting with the pepper plants to commence the project.
According to Mustapha, the peppers will be a fast crop so that the small farmers can be able to make “fast money” as the ministry is also assisting with locating the market which is the processing facility in Black Bush Polder operated by local company, Umami.
“Umami is doing a lot of produce in Guyana and they export overseas and they have a good reputation, they produce and export in Europe and so, so they have this processing plant in Black Bush Polder, they want as much pepper as possible so we will work with you, we will give you the plants, we will help you to build the shade house…”, Mustapha said.
Further Mustapha noted that each shade house is likely to cater for about 400 pepper plants. Production could be valued at around $720,000 per week.
Based on information gathered by the Stabroek News, pepper in the Berbice region is being sold for atleast $500 – $700 per pound presently.
“NAREI will work along with the hundred farmers, I hope that we select these farmers transparently, we have one per family, one shade house per family and this project will commence by next week so that we can get the project off running.”
He added, that they are hoping to start the project simultaneously across the grants in Crabwood Creek so that the produce can be reaped and sold at the same time.
