Revitalizing Cooperative Movement through Sustainable Livelihoods
Visit to KOKO & CABORORA, Moruca
The Ministry of Social Protection’s Special Projects Unit is actively involved in business investments. These projects also aid to resuscitate the pride of the cooperative movement in Guyana.
Recently, two workers from the Special Projects Unit’s Sustainable Livelihood and Entrepreneurial Development (SLED) travelled to Moruca, Region one to assess two projects that are being heavily invested in by the Ministry of Social Protection.
Tiffany Babb, Micro Credit Officer and Rhonda Nelson, Business Development Officer, travelled to villages of Koko and Upper Cabrora, Moruca, to distribute certificates to Cooperatives that had been previously registered in October 2017 and to follow up on the progress of those investments which the Ministry has made.
Just last year, some members of villages of Koko and Cabrora in the Moruca vicinity respectively formed themselves into cooperatives in order to create work opportunity and generate monetary income to sustain their families and by extension their village.
The Special Projects Unit through the Sustainable Livelihood Entrepreneurial Development initiative has decided to partner with the Guyana Livestock Development Authority, to effectively advise those groups that are interested in poultry rearing.
Veterinary advice on rearing poultry is pivotal and especially applicable when dealing with the Brazilian – Black Giants, which was the bird of choice of the Koko Cooperative Society in Moruca.
These birds can be successfully used for both purposes of the egg and meat production and are more financially lucrative in comparison to the white meat bird. The black bird is low maintenance, since they are foragers and can live off of garden scraps, coconuts husk and kitchen waste, but the initial years of the birds are both time consuming and costly.
While the initial care of the Brazilian- Black Poultry Bird is a meticulous one, the long term benefits once care is properly applied can prove to be superfluous in returns and profits once the bird is fully matured.
The Brazilian – Black Poultry Bird was imported as a result of the Guyana Livestock Development Agency to provide a breed of bird that would provide financial equity and protein sustenance with a fast profit to the hinterland regions.
The Koko Cooperative society project summated to an approximated cost of 3.2 million dollars, While Upper Cabrora Cooperative Society chose to farm cash crops and their project cost summated to approximately 2 million dollars. For Koko, the investment was used to purchase the materials for the necessary housing, construction, initial startup feed and 250 hatchlings/chicks to initiate the process of rearing and for Upper Cabrora; purchases included construction, tools and other farming supplies.
The Cooperative resuscitative movement is an ongoing process of Government’s investment in the development of the nation in a greater attempt to fulfill the mandate of the green state economy and to encourage and support self- sufficiency in villages and communities.