After past setback…
TRAFALGAR /Union Community Development Council (CDC), at West Coast Berbice, has recorded some successes but the President, Ms. Lloyda Angus said other inputs are needed.
“We have had challenges but are not going to be dissuaded by them. We are still looking for opportunities to develop our community,” she said in a recent interview with the Guyana Chronicle.
The CDC, as part of a Guyana Mirco Project financed by the European Commission (EC) and the Government of Guyana, received $5.3M last year, for a poultry rearing venture.
However, the organisation went bankrupt and the enterprise did not succeed.
Angus explained that, when they were given the $5.3M, they were expected to put up 25 per cent more, as the contribution of the beneficiaries.
“We started off well but the birds we got from an independent supplier were of poor quality and we lost the market to which we were to sell,” she said.
Angus reported that they ended up selling the produce to the community at a reduced price.
She said, despite the setback, 12 households which constitute the CDC are not deterred and the little profit they made from the sales was invested in aquaculture.
Angus said 25 acres of land were leased to the CDC by the Mahaica/Mahaicony/Abary Agricultural Development Authority (MMA/ADA) and, of those, 22 are still to be developed.
“We have four ponds, measuring one-tenth of an acre and two half acre ponds. We bought tilapia and trout fingerlings and are also making saltfish with bangamary,” she related
Angus said the CDC activities add to the income base of 12 households and, from discussions at daily meetings, they are looking to get involved with the agricultural diversification programme (ADP), that is funded jointly by the Inter-American Development Bank  and the Government of Guyana, with US$21.9M from the former and US$1M counterpart funding from the latter.
That scheme aims to increase the export of non-traditional agricultural commodities and establish services and institutions for a sustainable rise in the earnings derived from such as aquaculture, fruits, vegetables and livestock as well as beef, pepper, pumpkin, plantain and farm grown fish, particularly tilapia.
Meantime, the CDC is aiming to engage more households as additional opportunities become available.
“We have youths in training, funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and, when they are finished, they will add to what we are doing,” Angus said.
But she repeated the need for other assistance to advance the local efforts.