Agriculture, food production integral to the oil and gas industry

– public works minister tells students at agri expo

Minister within the Public Works Ministry Deodat Indar said agriculture and food production play integral roles in the oil and gas industry and therefore, production must be ramped up locally. Minister Indar was at the time addressing the Agriculture Exhibition hosted in observance of Agriculture Month at St Winefride’s Secondary School on Monday.

He said programmes such as the shade house initiative under the Agriculture and Innovation Entrepreneurship Programme (AEIP) has been rolled out to involve more youths in the sector.

“As production grows and expands offshore, more food for more people will be required. That means that more planting and cultivation has to happen, more farms have to expand, we have to go into different kinds of products, we have to provide the kind of food that the consumers want to eat,” the minister related.

He implored students to surround themselves with the right group of people so that they can become successful.  

The youths were also encouraged to explore the plethora of opportunities available in the agriculture, tourism, hospitality and other sectors.

“You have opportunities throughout the spectrum of this country. As you know, the building out of Guyana is underway, we started that when we came into Government in 2020 and it’s a massive amount of monies that we spent on constructing whether its bridges, whether its roads, whether its sea defences […]  throughout the spectrum of the country, in every single area, we are building out. When you have that kind of build-out, it requires people to do it,” the minister pointed out.

Advisor to the Agriculture Minister, Dr Richard Blair commended the teachers and the Parent Teachers’ Association (PTA) for organising the event.

The Department of Public Information (DPI) spoke to some exhibitors at the exposition. Cornel Fraser, Chief Executive Officer of Fraser’s Farming Consultancy Services noted that there are some stigmas attached to agriculture and farming, which he hopes the expo could address.

“Throughout the school system we miss those young people with agriculture because a lot of them see agriculture as just hard work, hard work and you be smelly and all of those things. Now if we can start them from at an earlier stage, if we can start training their minds to understand that agriculture, you can make serious money from it,” he said. Leisa Gibson, Co-owner of Melisa’s Organic Products and Beauty Supplies said, “What I am trying to do is let young people know that you can go into entrepreneurship. There’re some children here from an early age, you know that they’re meant for entrepreneurship.”