WOMEN agro-processors, grouped under the recently formed Mangrove Reserve Women Agricultural Producers (MRWAP), are to benefit from technical support from both the Inter American Institute for Co-operation on Agriculture (IICA) and the Institute of Applied Science and Technology (IAST) to enhance the quality and marketability of their products. This was indicated by officials of both agencies following talks with those of the Guyana Mangroves Restoration Project (GMRP).
Guyana Representative, Mr. Ignatius Jean said IICA will provide training for the women in the basic principles of food and other agro-processing, hygiene and sanitation, quality assurance and standards, food microbiology, labeling and packaging.
IICA will also get the Mangrove Women Incorporated (MWI) into the Women’s Agro-Processors Development Network (WAPDN), a national body
formed last August with the aim of members benefiting from productivity gains, such as economies of scale in purchase of raw materials, sharing information on processes and joint marketing efforts, among other synergies, Jean disclosed.
He said the IICA decision arose out of a meeting with Chairperson of the GMRP, Mrs. Annette Arjoon-Martins, who promoted the group as part of its alternative livelihoods component.
This aspect of the project seeks to provide alternative means of income for people in areas where flourishing mangrove forests exist so that they do not have to destroy the trees (which are an integral part of Guyana’s coastal sea defence) for income generating activities such as farming and burnt earth operations.
Arjoon–Martins recently disclosed that the women’s agro-processing activities have also been integrated into mangroves and community tourism.

Collaboration
The IICA aid for the larger WAPDN is in collaboration with Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) Guyana, the (United Nations) Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO), the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs and the Food and Drugs Analyst Department.
Jean said that home based agro-processing groups face many constraints, among them unavailability of packaging materials as well as
high prices for them.
The network, with aid from these bodies, is intended to make the problems bedevilling small type agro-processors easier to be resolved.
“IICA will get the Mangrove women into the network so that they can be part of what the other women are doing, in forging the synergies among themselves, which is something that is very important, because any one of them, on their own, will not have the strength to do certain things,” Jean stressed.
In addition, he said there are lots of lessons to be learnt and shared with each other.
IICA plans to hold a training session for the members of the MRWAP at their Cove and John headquarters on a date to be announced shortly and will do a follow-up after.
Head of the IAST, Professor Suresh Narine said their aid to MRWAP includes utilisation of fallen mangrove limbs and sustainable harvesting of them for the purpose of producing flavoured briquettes for smoking meats and flavouring of barbecue sauces.
He said IAST will be holding a workshop for the beneficiaries to discuss the potentials of these projects, as part of the development cycle and how science and technology and the IAST can play a supporting role and what may be possible.
That training will be done also MRWAP Headquarters on November 14.