Millet trial to begin when land becomes available – Min Mustapha

With Guyana recently receiving a quantity of millet seeds, Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha said the trial will commence as soon as land becomes available.

He made this disclosure while giving an update on the project on the sidelines of a recent event at the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI), Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara.

“We will start roughly about a trial of 50 acres. I am hoping that right at Mon Repos here we can start the 50 acres trial,” the minister relayed.

Minister Mustapha noted that the search for the land is currently being done by NAREI and as soon as it is identified, preparatory works will commence and the millet crop will be planted.

“We know that millet is a crop that can grow in different climatic conditions, it’s a very hard crop so you don’t need too much of caring. It could take the dry weather, it could take the harsh condition that we have here,” the agriculture minister posited.

During the first week of August, Minister Mustapha received a quantity of finger and barnyard millet from the Government of India, which was handed over by India’s High Commissioner to Guyana, Dr K J Srinivasa.

The aim is to cultivate about 200 acres of the crop.

President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali who attended the Global Millet Conference in March, in India, had said the crop will be grown in Regions Four, Nine and Ten.

Along with diversifying the various agricultural products, the millet crop is also aimed at reducing CARICOMS’s food import bill.