-as livestock feed project proceeds
Some 4,000 acres of soya bean are currently being harvested along the Berbice River and government is preparing the infrastructure for storage and processing of soya and other beans in Region 10, while looking to begin the construction of the foundation for a bean plant as well as a hardware house.
With the procuring entity being the Ministry of Agriculture’s National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), and the engineer’s estimate being $748.6 million, bids for the projects for building the foundation for the Bean Plant and a Hardware House were opened last week at the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB).
“It is the foundation to put up the plant for the beans,” Chairman of NDIA Lionel Wordsworth told the Sunday Stabroek when contacted.
The names of the companies and their respective bids are shown in the table below.
Table Set 2
Meanwhile, President Irfaan Ali on Monday announced that “over 4000 acres of soybeans, with an average yield of 1.2 tons per acre, are currently being harvested at Tacama Gold Inc in the Berbice River for the first crop of 2024.”
While spending over $1.2 billion towards infrastructural development in the Tacama, Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Upper Berbice) area towards livestock feed sustainability projects and other food security initiatives, government is exploring replication of similar projects across the country, Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha had said late last year.
At Tacama, corn and soya bean had been planted and reaped on a large scale, with the consortium that started that project already completing a trial phase of planting over 2,000 acres of millet.
“We are looking at having the same kind of thing at other places…” Mustapha had told the Stabroek News, but was quick to point out that the idea is only in the discussion phase.
The agriculture minister said that at Tacama, where a pilot project was launched in 2022 with a local business consortium for the planting of corn and soya on a large scale, the government promised to partner and would invest in supplying a silo and drying facilities for the produce. Mustapha informed that those facilities have already been installed and that the second batch of corn and soya products have been reaped, dried, and stored there successfully.
“That is the public/private partnership we are doing. We said invest and we will provide the infrastructure that is necessary. They are doing the planting and so on and we are taking care of roads [et cetera…],” he said. “The silo and drying facility? That was already set up and is in operation. Everything is complete and they are all working good,” he added.
Mustapha had disclosed that when the head of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) was here this year, he was taken on a tour of the facility and was impressed.
However, the minister emphasised that funding for the infrastructural work has not come from any foreign financial lending institution, but instead from state coffers.
When the construction of the facilities such as three 3,000-tonne silos and one 80-tonne-per-hour drying tower at the Tacama Landing was being executed, Mustapha had in March of this year, told this newspaper that in 2022, some $887 million had been budgeted to undertake infrastructural works needed to support the large-scale cultivation of livestock feed crops.
Of that amount, $426 million was budgeted for the rehabilitation of 47 kilometres of a vital Ituni-to-Tacama farm-to-market road, beginning from the junction of the Linden/Ituni road and heading east towards the Berbice River.
Senior Minister within the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh, during his 2022 budget presentation, had told the National Assembly that the government had committed $236 million for the procurement of a drying and storage facility and an additional $225 million for installation and other works.
In 2021, some $102 million was spent to begin rehabilitation works on the road.
Safeguard
The large-scale trial cultivation of corn and soya bean by the private investors was announced in 2021, as they stated it was being explored as a means to safeguard the country’s livestock feed supply through an initiative with the government.
Spearheaded by a consortium of businesses in the livestock production industry that includes Guyana Stockfeeds Inc, Royal Chicken, Edun Farms, SBM Wood, Dubulay Ranch, NF Agriculture, and Bounty Farm Ltd, of which David Fernandes is an executive, the trials began in 2021 with 250 acres of land owned by Alex Mendes of Dubulay Ranch. As a result, based on a successful trial, Fernandes, who leads the consortium spearheading the project, announced in December of last year, confirmation of plans for two crops per year, given the better-than-projected yields.
He has lauded government’s input and expressed thanks, saying it would not have been a reality if not for the vision of President Ali and the support from the state.
“Government, they helped us with the machinery they had at that location. Obviously, we paid for all the labour and all the materials and so on, and the government, through National Drainage and Irrigation Authority [NDIA] helped us with the building of this ramp to take the limestone,” he said during an interview with this newspaper where he had also done a PowerPoint presentation.
“This here [the drying facility being set up] will be used by all who produce it in the region you know, not just one company. So, these things have been given to be used by whomever produces; not to be given just for one company. Whoever produces would have access to these facilities that are being built. That is the understanding. Like the roads being built right now, is not just benefiting our group, it is there for the country,” Fernandes added.
