THE announcements made with respect to the agriculture sector in last Friday’s presentation of Budget 2021 has evoked pleasant and mixed reactions from farmers across the country.
Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, had revealed that the agriculture sector will benefit from a $22.6 billion allocation for this year.
Khemwattie Ramnarine, a cash-crop farmer from Region Two told the Guyana Chronicle on Monday that while this year’s budget has large sums of money being pumped into the various sub-industries of the agriculture sector, there are some shortfalls.

She believes that enough has not been allocated for small cash-crop farmers like herself.
Ramnarine, however lauded government for the efforts being made to address a number of issues in the sector pertaining to drainage and irrigation and infrastructure.

Some $12 million dollars has been allocated to the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) to address those everyday issues that farmers face with drainage and irrigation. Additionally, some $832 million has been allocated to the Agriculture Ministry for infrastructural works.

Me feel good about that because when the rain fall and you get flood, everything does damage right, and if you get good drainage and irrigation, everything will be okay,” she related.

Ramnarine pointed out that there are many farmers like herself who started their businesses out of their own pockets. She suggested that in the future government should allocate some money to provide incentives to potential farmers across the country.

WAITING TO REAP BENEFITS
Meanwhile, Susan Mohese, a rice farmer from Region Two, told this publication that while a lot of money has been allocated to the sector, farmers now have to sit back and see what will be the government’s action plan.

“We don’t know what’s the allocation that they are going to give to the regions, but the Agriculture Minister said that he will be doing works on all-weather roads. We have 13 dams and we need all-weather roads. A lot of money has been allocated to agriculture, but we will have to wait and see for the regional breakdown,” she said.

Nevertheless, Mohese said that she is optimistic that after completion of the debate and a regional breakdown is provided, farmers will reap the benefits of the 2021 Budget.
Meanwhile, Anand Persaud lauded the government for the removal of tax on a number of agricultural machinery and equipment.

“That was excellent, we good with that because all agriculture machine are tax-free and that is going to boost us because we don’t got to spend so much money on machinery and so,” the farmer said.
He noted that while the 2021 Budget is “looking good” for farmers, the authorities will now have to commit to executing the various projects that were laid out by the Ministry of Agriculture.

During his budget presentation, Minister Ashni Singh said that the allocations made to agriculture are geared towards ensuring that the sector is able to discharge its envisaged role. He said that the allocations will see the government investing in the opening of new farm-to-market roads; the clearing and preparation of new lands; expanding the infrastructure in the intermediate savannahs; expanding drainage and irrigation networks to make new lands available for small, medium, and mega farms; strengthening extension services through additional and improved facilities; traceability and certification services to reduce existing trade barriers; research and development; and coordinating and facilitating private-sector participation in agriculture-based tourism.

Dr. Singh reminded the National Assembly that agriculture is one of the most important productive sectors of Guyana’s economy, accounting for approximately one-third of Guyana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 30 percent of the country’s employment. Hence, investing in the sector and its stakeholders are a top priority for the Government of Guyana.

Allocations for the various sub-industries
$2 billion for critical capital works at GuySuCo
$1.3 billion for the Guyana Rice Development Board
$1.2 billion is budgeted to support the operations of the National Agricultural Research and Extension institute (NAREI)
$70 million to support the coconut industry
$832 million for agricultural infrastructure
$293 million is being provided to New Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC)
$806 million will be provided to the Guyana Livestock Development Authority
$293 million for the Fisheries and Aquaculture sector
$500 million for soya bean and corn production
$ 12 billion for Drainage and Irrigation (D&I)