The PPP/C Administration has had enough of subsistence farming and wants the nation’s agriculture to generate wealth for the people. This sentiment, expressed by Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, to residents of Region 1, clearly explained the reason for his visit to the region, accompanied by various regional and other officials. Minister Ramsammy and his team visited the Mabaruma Sub-Region from August 24 to 26, to explain to residents how this could be done. He outlined the ministry’s move to develop agricultural plans for all ten administrative regions and sub-regions, which would outline all the issues to be addressed to enable the plans to come to fruition.
Chairman of the MMA/ADA Project, Rudolph Gajraj, and Permanent Secretary of the Agriculture Ministry, George Jervis, have been tasked with preparing the plan for Region 1. Working together and pulling from their experience within the region and across the country, they have until the end of August to present the plans on what could be done in Region 1, and how agriculture could be developed. P.S. Jervis will also be coordinating a similar arrangement in Region 9. All ten regions will subsequently see the development of such plans.
During meetings with residents in Region 1, Minister Ramsammy stated, “For too long communities have been given an agenda from persons outside of Guyana who promote agriculture only for subsistence living. The PPP/C has had enough. We want to see agriculture developed, not only to feed our people, but to generate wealth,” he declared.
The minister added, “We see it as entrepreneurship and an enterprise. Farmers are not peasants, but business people.” He stated that the focus will be on not producing crops only, but also on value-added products of a high quality from those very crops.
Teams will travel to the various communities to identify the opportunities and how government can help, “bringing the resources of the ministry to add value and to certify farms to have access to the international market,” said the minister.
He explained to residents that the ministry will also be examining how farmers can utilise the opportunity of the LCDS. Explaining the meaning of the strategy, Minister Ramsammy showed how it is possible that projects such as palm oil production would provide the chance to extend and add to the forest, by growing more trees.
This would enable easier access to funding under the LCDS which has provided for it under the terms signed by Guyana and Norway for the GRIF funding. The funds are targeted for the preservation of the forests, and will be utilized by hinterland and Amerindian communities for projects focused on this objective.