Ramsammy urges return to agriculture at family level
NEW Minister of Agriculture Dr. Leslie Ramsammy has urged a return to basics with the encouragement of agriculture at the family level.
“There was a time when families had kitchen gardens,” he recalled, noting that hydroponics is a simple technology that can be transferred to that status.
In an interview with the Chronicle early last week, Dr. Ramsammy said that within the last two to three years, efforts have been stepped up to continuously develop new technologies at the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI), one of which is hydroponics.
Hydroponics is a method of growing plants, which, in Guyana, is mostly green, leafy products, using mineral nutrient solutions, in water, without soil.
NAREI has several demonstration facilities across the country, including one at Mon Repos on the East Coast Demerara, the Kairuni Horticulture Station and the Timehri Research and Demonstration Facility, the latter two in Region 10 (Upper Demerara/Upper Berbice).
The advancement of new agricultural technologies is centered on the enhancement of livelihoods and Ramsammy maintains that, if more people have access to simple agricultural technology, then they would be able to have access to quality food, which, in turn, supports healthy living.
Currently hydroponics is being practised by the average farmer in Regions Two (Pomeroon/Supenaam), Three (West Demerara/Essequibo Islands) and Five (Mahaica/Berbice) and the minister said the technology is catching on, even though the range of crops is somewhat limited to leafy vegetables.
“We eat to live, so food must be quality food to ensure that it is healthy…hydroponics is a simple way for us to do this,” Ramsammy insisted.
He posited that quality food is safe food that promotes long and disability free lives.   
Ramsammy said hydroponics is being adopted around the world for food production because:

* no soil is needed;
* the water stays in the system and can be recycled, thus lowering water costs;
* it is possible to control the nutrition levels in their entirety, thus lowering  nutrition costs;
* no nutrition pollution is released into the environment because of the controlled system;
* there are stable and high yields;
* pests and diseases are easier to get rid of than in soil because of the container’s mobility;
* faster growth combined with relative freedom from soil disease and consistency in crops;
* considerable reduction in growing area;
* weeds are practically non-existent, while standard methods and automatic operations mean less labour, lower cost and less difficult manual labour and
* as some plants can be raised out of season, better control of crops naturally results.

Hydroponics began receiving attention from NAREI last June and, since then, there have been successful crops, as well as advancements at the different demonstration sites.