– following graduation from agro-processors training programme

TWENTY-FOUR young people on Friday graduated as the fourth batch of youth to benefit from the collaboration among the Ministry of the Presidency, Department of Social Cohesion, Culture Youth and Sport, and the Guyana School of Agriculture (GSA).

This collaboration dates back three years and is geared towards empowering youth through an agro-processing training programme.

The programme aims to encourage young people to get involved in agriculture and aids in boosting the said sector to reclaim the country’s title of “the breadbasket of the Caribbean,” and it also gears them to become entrepreneurs.

This newspaper spoke to Shonette Reid, one of the graduates of this batch who was very much excited about the knowledge gained from the programme. She shared that she had a bit of agricultural knowledge, but the programme has improved on that.

“I knew a little bit about agriculture, but not as in-depth as the programme took me. I now understand the concepts of how to take care of raw materials; how to preserve it and add value; the right methods of labelling and packaging and so much more,” Reid said.

She added that her reason for signing up for the training is that she always wanted to get into production and she has intentions getting into the business of making teabags, but she was unaware of how to go about doing so.

“I want to get into teabag production and I had absolutely no idea how to start. And with this training, I have a lot of useful information that gives me a better idea of what to do. It made me aware that I can use our own produce right here in Guyana, and I probably would not have known that. And it showed me also, how simple the process is, so now that I have completed the training, I definitely will now venture off into investing in making my own tea bags,” the young woman said.

Reid said she believes that agriculture is a Guyanese thing, past, present and will be our future. As such, she believes that the training programme is necessary so as to teach our own and help with reducing unemployment.

Minister of Social Cohesion Dr George Norton, in a previous address to the agro processing training said that the graduates should use their knowledge gained to bring Guyana back to where it used to be in the agricultural sector. He explained that Guyana fell prey to excessive imports and the prosperity of Guyana lies on Guyanese shoulders.

“It is a well-known fact that agriculture is the backbone of a country’s economy, given that Guyana was once celebrated as the breadbasket of the Caribbean and literally it remains that way, even though the basket might not be as filled at this time as it might have been in the past, but certainly can be in the future and that is what we are depending on you the youths to do,” Minister Norton said.

One of the objectives of the training is to create an environment that would work towards reducing the unemployment rate amongst our young people, and the idea of having our young people involved in agro-processing arose from a visit made by the team from the Department of Youth, to the Pomeroon in 2015. It was then observed that there was some wastage of fruits and vegetables; they felt that some of the wastage could be curtailed through agro-processing, so they thought it fit to venture into this programme.