Karasabai’s vibrant agricultural project booming

[youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9CuAHeE_jU” width=”100%” height=”315″]

─ “What we did was to encourage the people in the village to start farming” – Project Coordinator

DPI, Guyana, Thursday, October 11, 2018

Karasabai’s vibrant agricultural project in Region Nine is benefitting both students and farmers. The community project started out with peanuts as its main produce. However, Project Coordinator Ronald Lee-Bing said that they have since introduced blackeye peas and red beans among other cash crops, and poultry rearing.

Lee-Bing explained that the diversification was done to supply the hot meal programmes in nearby schools. “What we did was to encourage the people in the village to start farming kitchen gardens and minding life stocks to supply the hot meal kitchen because other than that we would have to get the chicken out of Brazil which is neighbour to Karasabai Village, we have decided to have everything done locally” he stated.

Lee-Bing said, thus far, it has been a success and that both students and farmers are appreciating the initiative. He noted that the students have healthy organic food and farmers, a viable market for their produce.

“Instead of them [farmers] marketing their stuff in Brazil which is a traditional practice, the hot meal kitchen has taken over that role of taking their products, so they do not have to cross the border because it is not a product for money, it is an exchange of product for product. But in this case, with the hot meal they get paid cash, so you can use your cash now to buy stuff right in the village,” Lee-Bing said.

The project coordinator also pointed out that the schools are being encouraged to take up agriculture, starting with kitchen gardens.

Isaiah Braithwaite.

Image: Giovanni Gajie.