–disilting of canals to be expanded

Minister of Agriculture Dr. Leslie Ramsammy has assured rice and other crop farmers at Cozier in The Pomeroon, that the main access dam will be added to the scope of work for Cozier.

Minister Ramsammy, who travelled by boat with a high-level team on the Pomeroon river and Cozier Canal, yesterday, met with scores of rice and other crop farmers and addressed them on several problems/challenges facing them. He told the farmers that his visit is an ongoing one on the ground to meet with farmers and as a minister, he had promised them a visit to see what the problems/challenges are and to set up a work programme for the development of the Cozier agricultural area.
After listening to some farmers relate the challenges/problems they are facing in terms of agricultural development at Cozier, the minister said the PPP/C Government has always responded to meet with farmers on the ground to sort out and find solutions to problems/challenges they are faced with in farming. He said at Cozier the major problems faced by rice farmers are the main access dam to the public road and a concrete culvert across a main irrigation canal to shorten the transportation route of produce to the public road. Minister Ramsammy assured farmers that his ministry will work with the Region 2 administration to ensure that the problems/challenges are resolved with some urgency. According to the minister, the Government through the Ministry of Agriculture has already responded to the desilting and clearing of drainage and irrigation canals in Cozier and said more work for the fertile farming area will be advertised this weekend. He assured farmers that the scope of work for drainage and irrigation will be expanded.
Farmers also assured the minister that they will assist in self-help mode by providing labour and machinery/equipment to construct the concrete culvert across the canal; the minister in turn disclosed that the Government will provide materials for the project. He said other crop farmers have some different challenges in terms of the pump station and several cross-canals and assured them that his ministry will work quickly to have the issues addressed so that cultivation and production will increase on a large scale.
Some members on the high-level team that accompanied the minister to Cozier are Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture Mr. George Jarvis; CEO of the National Drainage & Irrigation Authority (NDIA) Mr Lionel Wordsworth; Region 2 Chairman Mr. Parmanand Persaud and officials of the Guyana Rice Development Board and Department of Agriculture.

(Rajendra Prabhulall in Essequibo)