Residents in the Pakaraimas Mountain communities will receive 13 tractors as gifts during the upcoming 9th  annual Pakaraimas safari next month.
The Pakaraimas safari is scheduled for late March early April, but the dates have not yet been officially announced.
An ongoing effort to sell Guyana as an adventure destination, the
safari will take  participants across Regions Eight
(Potaro/Siparuni) and Nine (Upper Takutu/Upper Essequibo), and into
Orinduik..
The presentation of the 35HP4WD tractors will be a follow-up to their
purchase by government at a cost of $2.5M dollars each in May
last year. The cost is inclusive of a trailer, mould plough and box
scraper with funds from the hinterland road programme.
Regional Chairman of Region 8, Senor Bell, disclosed that
seven of the machines were taken from Region 9 to Region 8 through
Monkey Mountain, and will remain there until their formal handing over
during the safari.
The other six will be taken in prior to the safari for handing over
when the expedition reaches the area.
The 13 tractors had been part of a batch of 18 machines
which had been bought by government from Farm Supplies/Genequip  at
McDoom Village, East Bank Demerara.
Five of the 18 have since been handed over to beneficiaries of
Region 9 (Upper Essequibo/Upper takutu).
During a ceremony at Farm/Supplies and Genequip last year, Prime
Minister Samuel Hinds had said that the residents of the villages
were being rewarded for building roads in the Pakaraima plateau,
where none existed,  with their bare hands.
The villagers had, under the encouragement of the then Minister
Harripersaud Nokta, over a period of six years, upgraded walking
trails in their mountainous habitat to accommodate tractors and trucks
and 4WD vehicles in dry weather, thereby making the first Pakaraima
trail safari in 2003 possible.
PM Hinds had disclosed that the tractors, which were a reward for
their hard work and would also serve to make their work more productive,
providing transport among villages so that they can benefit from the
presence of the road and encourage development of fixed agricultural
fields and fixed farming as part of the national “Grow More Food” and
improved livelihoods programme.
PM Hinds had also disclosed that a further $1/2M will be available to
each village to cover fuel and maintenance for about the first year.
Bell said that the region will be overseeing the use of the vehicles
through at least quarterly meetings with the village councils.
He was happy to note that an immediate benefit of the gifts will be a
drop in transportation costs between villages to $20 per pound of
goods from the current rate of about $85 per pound.
Mr. Schelte Van Dijk of Farm Supplies /Genequip said that the company
will provide training and support to the operators to ensure that the
tractors are properly operated and maintained.