10 Amerindian communities receive much-needed agri. inputs to advance food production

In its efforts for Amerindian communities to be sustainable while advancing their agricultural food systems, ten Amerindian communities received various agricultural implements to ramp up food production.

These communities include White Water, One Mile, Three Brothers, and Fitzburg in Region One; Imbaimadai, Agatash, and Chinowieng in Region Seven; Chenapau in Region Eight; Simoni and Karasabai in Region Nine. 

Among the agricultural implements include water pumps, agricultural sprayers, brush cutters, garden hoses, shade nets (mesh) and plastic, and knapsack sprayers. 

The handing-over ceremony occurred on Friday at the Ministry of Agriculture, Regent Street, Georgetown.

During brief remarks, Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha highlighted that the government will continue to allocate the necessary agriculture implements to further develop agriculture in the hinterland communities.

“By the end of this year, we will be expending close to $3.2 billion in Amerindian communities to develop agriculture. And as the president rightly said, we are now compiling a comprehensive package for food security in the agriculture sector. This will help the people in the villages to continue to work with us so we can have food security,” Minister Mustapha noted.

The distribution of the much-needed agriculture inputs forms part of a commitment made by His Excellency, Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali during the National Toshaos Council Conference this week.

The Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC) will be working directly with the farmers to find ready markets for their produce.

“We will work with them to ensure that they concentrate on large crops. We will work with the communities to develop their village plans for food security so that they can export these to the Caribbean.”

Minister Mustapha underscored that there is a department that will be working directly with the communities to assist them with the planning of their programmes, while making the right decisions to expend their allocations in the right manner.

Meanwhile, Vice Chairman of Agatash, Region Seven, Maureen Couchman Da Silva received agriculture inputs and a check valued at $1 million from the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport to execute works on the ballfield.

“We will use it [check] to expand the ballfield by cleaning more lands to make a bigger ballfield.

Da Silva added that the community will be extremely grateful for the much-needed inputs to expand agriculture there.

“It will be a benefit to our community because the water is very dry in there. Sometimes, people who are not getting water will use the water pump to pump water in their tanks. Also, we will not have to grate anymore since we will use the mill to grate our cassava. The weeding is very good for our community because we don’t have any right now. So, we are glad for it,” she expressed.