Agriculture Ministry receives pepper seeds produced by CARDI to assist with ongoing flood relief efforts

Today, officials from the Caribbean Agriculture Research and Development Institute handed over a quantity of pepper seeds that were produced by the institute to assist the government with its ongoing flood relief efforts.

Following the extended May-June rainy period which resulted in flooding in most of the agriculture regions in the country, the government has been extending assistance to farmers who suffered losses in the form of a cash grant and planting materials such as seeds and seedlings.

During the meeting, CARDI Guyana’s Officer-in-Charge & Integrated Pest Management Specialist, Jhaman Kundun said that they were able to understand the level of devastation the recent floods had on the sector, and therefore, is willing to offer its full support to the government with undertaking its ongoing flood relief efforts.

The hot pepper seeds, produced by CARDI, are Moruga Red, Scorpion, West Indies Red, and Scotch Bonnet.

The CARDI official also said in addition to the seeds, CARDI’s subsidiary, the Caribbean Agricultural Commercial Services Hub Limited (CACSH) will be providing new varieties of onion seeds to the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) for field testing in the local ecosystem.

These varieties, he noted, were specifically bred for the tropics and in partnership will undertake to determine their suitability for local production.

Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha thanked CARDI for its timely donation and said that his ministry looks forward to continuing to partner with the institute to develop and improve Guyana’s agriculture sector through agricultural research.