Government will make available land in the savannahs of Guyana for corn cultivation for serious investors in a bid to tap into the local market for the product, which is imported at a rate of 50,000 tonnes a year to support the livestock industry, says Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud.
He was speaking at a workshop to introduce farmers and entrepreneurs to the techniques of the Brazilians. The workshop commenced yesterday at the Guyana School of Agriculture.
The Ministry of Agriculture has partnered with the Brazilian agency EMBRAPA – the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation – to assist the country to realize its full potential in corn cultivation and production. Persaud stressed that Guyana’s corn production will not be focused on bio-fuels.
Minister Persaud said the activity was not about teaching Guyanese about planting corn, since the crop has been grown in Guyana for years. He said that the seminar is about ensuring “that we have the right techniques so that we can benefit from expertise for a viable corn production system.”
Persaud said that there are about 100 corn farmers operating on a very small scale at just under five acres. “[This] on its own cannot be deemed viable,” the Minister said. He pointed out that there are similar soil types in Guyana to those in Brazil, and for this reason, there is wisdom in engaging large scale production of corn.
The Minister expressed gratitude to the Government and people of Brazil for the training. He said too that there is also collaboration planned for rice, soya bean and other products to be grown in the savannahs.
The Minister said Guyana imports nearly 50,000 tonnes of corn every year for livestock feed production. “We have a ready market,” the minister said, adding that producers could link with importers so that they could be supplied from the product grown locally.
“We are not interested in conversion [of corn] to biofuels,” Persaud said, adding that the emission for the conversion of corn to biofuels results in high carbon emissions.
He said he hopes small farmers could pool together and take up the offers for larger scale operations.
Persaud said that the Ministry not only aims to bring small corn farmers together by linking them to markets, but also having them linked to large investors, such as those developing seeds for export to the United States where corn will be grown from them.
“I want to challenge the farmers and investors to [get on board],” he said, adding that small farmers may be able to act as satellite farms for the larger investors. “As Government, we are very serious about it. We want it to be viable and oriented to fit the market,” he said, advising the farmers that corn cultivation must be justified by market opportunities.
Speaking at the event, Director of the National Agricultural Research Institute, Dr. Udho Homenauth, said that corn production has a wide variety of food uses and ranks second after wheat. He said there is clearly a market for locally grown corn and noted that the expansion of the corn-growing industry fits neatly into the Government’s agricultural diversification and expansion programme.
He said so far, Guyana plants the traditional variety of corn and noted he was aware of the excellent corn breeding work done at the Dubulay Ranch in the intermediate savannahs, where a foreign investor is working with local skills to develop varieties of corn.