– Minister Mustapha tells West Demerara farmers

By Naomi Parris
JUMP-STARTING celebrations for Agriculture Month 2020, Minister with that portfolio, Zulfikar Mustapha, visited farmers in the Parika Backdam, Ruby Backdam and Vergenoegen, West Demerara region, on Thursday, to address a number of concerns affecting them.

The minister, during his first visit, told the farmers and residents that the aim of such engagements was to ensure that all their needs were met to provide quality produce for the country and to other neighbouring countries within the Caribbean region, soon.

“There are a lot of concerns and demands in the farming communities in the country as a whole; people need jobs, people need development, people need a lot of other facilities and the resources that we gave are limited; that is why we are coming to listen to your concerns to see how we can also prioritise them”, he said.

He further noted that the timing of his visit could not have come at a better time as Guyana is gearing up to celebrate Agriculture Month. Agriculture Month is celebrated in October.
“This is a very important month for us. Today, we would have launched Agriculture Month 2020 and we have launched it because we feel agriculture is the backbone of our country’s economy, and it will remain the backbone of our country’s economy even with all the other resources in the world — the oil, the gas, the gold, the diamond and bauxite … A time will come when all those resources will be exhausted and we will have to continue to depend on agriculture,” he said.

Farmers, he said can be considered the backbone of Guyana’s economy as they are the ones who keep the sector alive.
“We recognise the role that you the farmers are playing in bringing in wealth for our country and we’ll continue to ensure that we support the people in the agriculture sector,” he said, adding: “I want to reiterate the point that we are committed to all the promises we have made in our manifesto and I’m very optimistic, come 2025, we will fulfill all the promises.”
During his visits to the areas, the minister was able to address concerns of drainage and irrigation, farm infrastructure and renting of land.

Meanwhile, speaking briefly about Guyana’s sugar industry, he noted that, from the 2020 budget, some $18 billion has been allocated to the sector and Guyanese can expect to see the Skeldon, Enmore and Rose Hall sugar estates soon being operational while the Wales Estate will see a development authority programme being established to provide jobs for former sugar workers who were laid off from their jobs during the closure back in 2017.
The minister is expected to visit the Den Amstel and Hague backdam today where he will have similar interaction with farmers.