MEMBERS of the Mara Farmers’ Association (MFA) in Region 6 (East Berbice/Corentyne) last week benefited from a five-day training workshop in effective small farm management.The programme was organised by the Caribbean Local Economic Development Project (CARILED) in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development (MLGRD) and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).

The venue was the Mara Community Centre, Ma- Retriate Scheme, East Bank of Berbice and the resource persons were IICA Sustainable Rural Development Specialist, Mr. Arnold De Mendonza, Agriculture Field Specialist, Mr. Jermaine Joseph and National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) District Officer, Ms. Yashma Subhai.

30 FARMERS PARTICIPATED
CARILED is a project funded by the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD) and currently works in seven Caribbean countries to develop models of Local Economic Development (LED) that can be shared throughout the Region.

CARILED disclosed that the Mara workshop focused extensively on use of simple farm management tools for effective and efficient management of farms, on low cost production techniques, good agricultural practices, preventing and controlling contamination of fresh farm produce, post-harvest handling of crops, prevention of post-harvest crop losses and development of marketing operations.

The workshop, it was reported, forms one aspect of the Mara Agricultural Enhancement Project (MAEP) which seeks to increase the productive capacity and diversify the portfolio of farmers in the Mara (California to Germania) area on the East Bank Berbice.

Mr. Ovid Phillips, Chairman of the Mara Farmers’ Association thanked the MLGRD, CARILED, the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) of Region 6, IICA, NAREI and the participants for making the five-day training exercise a success.

He said that the training will tremendously improve the lives of the famers.

Mr. Dhanraj Singh, National Country Coordinator (CARILED-Guyana) urged the farmers to adopt the new practices that they had been taught and to continue to seek new information that can improve their livelihood in a green and sustainable way.

He also said that CARILED will continue to work with the farmers to increase access to new markets domestically, regionally and internationally.

The Regional Chairman of Region 6, Mr. David Armogan and Regional Vice-Chairman Mr. Bhupaul Jhagroo attended and closed the workshop on the final day.

CARILED is a six-year programme launched in May 2012, with headquarters in Trinidad and Tobago, and sub-offices in Saint Lucia (OECS) and Ottawa, Canada.

It is being implemented by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), in partnership with the Caribbean Association of Local Government Authorities (CALGA), the Caribbean Forum of Local Government Ministers (CFLGM) and the Commonwealth Local Government Forum CLGF).

It aims to partner with 50 local government authorities in countries in the Caribbean to support the growth and development of 500 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
By Clifford Stanley