TWO decades of the PPP/C Government’s investment in drainage and irrigation have been having significant impact on agriculture production, especially in Region 2, Minister in the Ministry of Agriculture, Alli Baksh underscored during the Budget debate in the National Assembly on Thursday.

Pointing to the interventions made in drainage and irrigation in the region, Minister Baksh highlighted that prior to 1992, (as it relates to rice production), Region 2 was only able to produce 560,000 to 600,000 bags of paddy per crop. “Today, because of the drainage and irrigation systems, because of the type of work that we have been doing to maintain our irrigation and drainage system, we are producing over one million bags of paddy per crop,” the minister stated.
In highlighting this agricultural transformation in Region 2, an effect that is being felt across the other regions, Minister Baksh mentioned the conditions of drainage infrastructure, before the PPP/C administration took office. He stated that they were in terrible shape and this government overcame that challenge, and today, can be proud of its achievements in Region 2 as well as in the other regions.
Government has spent a tremendous amount of money in the last two decades on drainage and irrigation and Budget 2013 seeks to enhance this process, he said.
Minister Baksh also outlined several drainage and irrigation interventions that are provided for under Budget 2013, including expansion to recently commissioned pump stations inclusive of the one at Kitty, Liliendaal and Lusignan in Region 4; Dawa and Anna Regina, Region 2, and Number 19 and Number 42, Region 6.
It also provides for continued rehabilitation works to pumps in the following areas: Stanleytown in Region 3, Trafalgar in Region 5, Anna Regina and Cozier in Region 2, and on the Greenfield Pump station, which will serve 1500 acres of land from Mosquito Hall to Doch Four in Region 4, benefiting close to 350 mostly cash crop farmers.
In 2013, the ministry will commission the Black Bush Polder, Region 6, and the Canal Number Two, Region 3 pump station and sluice respectively.
The minister also pointed to several key drainage and irrigation projects that will continue to be executed in the regions. For Region 2, he pointed to continued land preparation for the Aurora Land Development Project. Budget 2013 provides $500M for the project to develop 5500 acres of land for rice and beans cultivation, to bring benefit 300 young families in Region 2.
Excavation of drainage channels and the construction of embankment in Lower and Upper Pomeroon are being undertaken to benefit more than 600 acres and hundreds of poor farmers in these communities. There is also the empoldering of farmlands from Grant Relief to Vergenoegen and the excavation of drainage channels in Supenaam Creek and Bethany.
Along with the construction of a new drainage outlet, sluice and pump station for Canal Number Two Polder, revetment work is also being done in that community, while construction of sluice door at Stryke-en-Hovel, West Bank Demerara, construction of timber revetment at Boerasirie Water Conservancy and the construction of embankment, concrete structures, sluice and installation of HPDE tubes at eastern Hogg Island are among major drainage projects being undertaken in Region 3.
In Region 4, there is the construction of a sluice at Grove/Diamond, East Bank Demerara, and another at Buxton, the rehabilitation of Garden of Eden drainage sluice, the continuation of the East Demerara Water Conservancy Northern Relief Structure, revetment works at Bee Hive and the excavation of canals in Friendship.
Programmes mentioned for Region 5 include the construction of a sluice at Profitt, Abary, the sluice at Cottage, Mahaicony, and the excavation of the outfall and works on the canal that will link the sluice.
Those mentioned for Region 6 include the construction of a sluice at Mara, along with the work on the supplementary drainage for Black Bush Polder.
In Region 10, there is  the construction of the soak away structures and drainage system at Canvas City at Block 22, Linden and the construction of control structures in West Watooka Phases 1and 2, Minister Baksh said.
Budget 2013 provides for transfer of $6.5B to aid drainage and irrigation interventions this year.