DEMERARA Distillers Limited (DDL) has made an official invitation to farmers, particularly young farmers residing in Linden, to take advantage of their TOPCO multi-billion dollar expansion project which is expected to take effect in July 2020.

The recent call was made at the Linden Youth Summit where company Chemist, NaJuma Nelson, and Carl Sancho, addressed Linden youths on how the expansion can directly benefit them and how they can use the opportunity to get into agriculture, particularly with the advent of E-Agriculture.

With the emergence of the oil and gas industry, Nelson, who is also a young Lindener, urged the youths to see the agro-processing industry as a spin-off industry to oil and gas, which can be as equally lucrative.

She highlighted that TOPCO was very strict on its policy to utilize local farmers and with the two million fruit that was needed to supply the plant’s expansion operations, there was need to expand their relationships with the local farmers. The company was already working along with 40 farmers and in 2019, 350 000 lbs of fruits were supplied. “We need to expand our relationships with local fruit farmers and this is where the opportunities for youths and young people being involved in the process is present,” she said.

With local farmers on board, the company will be able to have more stable prices for its products as well as stable employment for the farmers. The company’s expansion includes adding a one litre packaging line as well as to commence the production of dairy products.

Mr. Carl Sancho related that the two million lbs of fruits needed, will not even be enough for the expansion. “If all 1.9 M lbs of fruits are supplied by local farmers next year, that will only account for about 7 per cent of our capacity; would be utilized for an eight-hour period per day,” he said.

The company was also looking to expand the type of fruits that are currently used which include cherry, passion fruit and five-finger. These, among other reasons, are why there is need for more farmers to come on board. The officials urged the farmers not to be afraid of stepping on the supply chain because there was a plethora of support agencies and access to a network of technical advice experts they can tap into. There was also financial support and market support.

“We hope that future young Linden farmers take advantage, as E agriculture will come on board to join us, as we expand in the juice industry and future dairy industry,” Nelson said.

President Granger who gave the feature address at the summit, also encouraged the young Lindeners to come on board and to tap into the agricultural opportunities available in the country.

Since the establishment of the Regional Agricultural Department, headed by Agronomist Derick Collins, agriculture has certainly seen a boost in Region Ten and more farmers, particularly young people, are gravitating towards the fields. The Department, with support from the Ministry of Agriculture, has also successfully completed several training sessions with farmers and has been giving them the continuous technical and even tangible support, through donations, over the last few months.

The construction of the farm to market road which gives access to the intermediate savannahs of Region Ten and the farming villages along the Berbice River, has also opened up avenues for many farmers along this corridor to benefit from such an opportunity, since accessing markets was one of their sore issues.

There has been an increase in food production in Region Ten, and, with the opportunity made available by TOPCO, fruit farmers in particular, can now be guaranteed of a stable market for their produce.