–sees ‘millennials’ as the bedrock of a country’s economy

By Naomi Parris

NEWLY-appointed Minister of Agriculture Mr. Zulfikar Mustapha, who is an agriculturist at heart, has vowed to create programmes for more youth involvement in the agriculture sector.
Describing himself as “a field man”, the minister told the Guyana Chronicle on Monday that his mission is to serve the people of Guyana to the best of his ability, and to have a hands-on approach to addressing the issues of those who work in and depend on the Agriculture sector for their livelihoods.
“I want to inform the Guyanese population that I am here to serve Guyanese; I’m here to ensure that we improve the agriculture sector, and I want to form a partnership with the people of our country so that we can improve agriculture,” he said.
A veritable new kid on the block where holding a ministerial post is concerned, Minister Mustapha stressed that he is dedicated to the execution of his duties to serve the people of Guyana, especially the youths, who he believes are pivotal to taking agriculture in Guyana to the next level.
Noting that he is in the process of setting up the infrastructure and engaging with the relevant stakeholders to have several sensitisation programmes put in place within the Ministry to encourage more youth involvement in the sector, he said:
“We need programmes that will encourage people; we have to give incentive. If you look in the PPP/C Manifesto, those are some of the things we planned. We will give incentive and reduce land rental; we will give farming equipment, and we will give tools.”
The programmes of which he speaks, the minister said, will serve to encourage young people to be more proactive in the agriculture sector.

BENEFITS TO BE DERIVED

In sharing his optimism, the Minister noted that when the younger populace sees the benefits which they can reap from such programmes and the agriculture sector, the government will definitely see more youth involvement.
“As long as people see that the agriculture sector is moving, and there are incentives, and see that there is money that they can make there, the young people will eventually gravitate towards that sector,” Minister Mustapha said.
He also noted that he has met with the heads of the Guyana School of Agriculture (GSA) to discuss the way forward as it relates to agro-processing, and having more local products on the shelves of every local supermarket, the minister said:
“We are importing a lot of foodstuff that we are producing in our country; if we could promote those, and people can buy into it, then we will have less to import, and that will benefit our country, because the local producer will get market for their produce.”
He added, “The PPP/C government is centered around the people; people must benefit. We must make the lives of the people better. That is the whole objective and philosophy of the PPP/C government; to improve the lives of the people of this country.”
In terms of the projects that would have been implemented under the previous administration, Mustafa said he is yet to assess them to determine whether those projects or programmes were beneficial to the people of Guyana.
“I am open to any project that will benefit the Guyanese people,” he said, adding: “We should not say that because this is a project, we must just embrace it just like that; We have to see what benefits the people can get from that.”
With regard to the kitchen garden project that was launched amid the COVID-19 outbreak, Minister Mustafa noted that he will soon be revisiting it to determine whether it should be continued or how it can be improved.
“There was a kitchen garden project that was started by the previous minister. If that project is benefiting people, well then of course, I will continue with it; I’ll have to do a review of it to see what benefits people are getting from this project, if not, we will have to improve it to make it better, so that people can,” he said.