Agri-extension officers being trained to provide quality services

Agricultural Extension Officers for Regions Three, Four, and Five are undertaking an agricultural extension reorganisation training programme in order to efficiently execute their jobs and to be well-rounded in all areas within the agriculture ministry’s sub-sectors.

The three-day workshop will equip the officers with the necessary knowledge and abilities to provide resolutions to farmers nationwide with any challenges they may encounter.

The extension officers will be exposed to various topics intended to provide them with the skills to effectively execute their duties. These include crop cultivation, livestock husbandry, and aquaculture.

The training is being facilitated at the Guyana School of Agriculture (GSA), Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara.

During remarks at the opening ceremony on Wednesday, Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha underscored that a strong and well-coordinated extension and advisory service system must be available to all farmers and rural communities for the sector’s future growth.

“I hope that we can have an extension service that is most responsive to the needs of the farmers. If we want to develop this sector and for it to be robust, then, you the extension officers have to drive it. It is necessary that every extension officer has, at least, the basic knowledge of every sub-sector to be able to provide quality extension services to our farmers,” Minister Mustapha explained.

The agriculture minister noted that very soon extension officers will be rotated among agriculture agencies, as they must be knowledgeable in all fields.

 “You will see movement from NAREI to GRDB. You will see movement from GRDB to fisheries and from fisheries to GLDA. If you are an extension officer at GRDB, you must know what is happening at NAREI and GLDA, so you can be a well-rounded extension officer,” Minister Mustapha stated.

He said officers who are being trained over time will be able to assist countries like Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago to further develop their agriculture sectors.

Several technical officials have already travelled abroad to assist countries in growing particular areas of their agriculture sectors.

Additionally, the agriculture minister noted that various agencies have been tasked to develop a module which can be utilised to train the extension officers regularly to have an effective extension system.