–on the cards for MMA scheme

TO further enhance the capacity of Guyana’s agriculture sector, some 10,000 acres of land will be developed at the Mahaica Mahaicony Abary-Agricultural Development Authority (MMA-ADA) scheme.

Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha, in an agriculture special report aired on Monday, said that the ministry is currently procuring some heavy-duty equipment to start its work programme in the scheme.

“We had started some work last year, and for the MMA, we have purchased some new equipment, so that they can help us continue the work in the scheme. We will be procuring another two long-reach excavators; these would be used in the second phase to continue work there, and more lands will open up,” Minister Mustapha said.

The procurement of the equipment at reference, the minister said, will result in extensive works being done on the farm-to- markets roads within the scheme, which will provide for more lands to be cultivated in 2022.

“We will also see more farm-to-market roads opening up in the country; the second branch of the farm-to-market road will continue, where we will see more than 10,000 acres of land coming under cultivation,” Minister Mustapha said, adding: “We will see new cattle pastures coming to bed; we will do impoldering… So, all in all, the second phase is a work-in-progress, and we will continue to do that, and continue to open up more lands.”

The minister said that works will also commence in the scheme to enhance drainage and irrigation structures, along with several rehabilitation works on a number of dams, so as to provide farmers with better access to their farms.

“What we will also being doing in the MMA is enhancing the critical drainage and irrigation structures, and continue to rehabilitate the dams, so farmers can have easy access to their crops,” Minister Mustapha said.

Other works will also be conducted in anticipation of the upcoming May/June rainy season, among them heightening the main canal embankments, as well as the embankments of the Abary River, and construction of canals and drains all across the scheme.

Similar work will be replicated across the country as part of the Agriculture Ministry’s overarching objective to increase domestic production.

This year, the ministry has received $22 billion in Budget 2022 to execute critical works nationwide.

“The total of the budget for agriculture is approximately $22 billion; it’s one of the best budgets I’ve ever heard, and will continue the projects that are in our Manifesto, and see the economic transformation of Guyana,” Minister Mustapha said.

“It is people-centred, and it is focused on the continued transformation of our country,” he added.

The Government of Guyana is focused on ramping up domestic production as well as agro-processing capabilities, and is working with the region to remove all historic barriers and impediments to intra-regional trade, and promoting, more widely, agri-business and complete transformation of regional food systems.

On the domestic front, focus will be placed on both traditional crops, as well as new and emerging ones.

These commitments, Minister Mustapha said, are “golden opportunities” for Guyana to finally realise its true cpotential as the breadbasket of the Caribbean.

President Dr. Irfaan Ali has said time and again that the government envisions that Guyana will play its part in helping the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) reduce its food import bill by 25 per cent by 2025.

“The envisaged transformation of the local agriculture sector will involve an inclusive approach, which will include the active participation of the government and the private sector, and continued engagements with farmers, agriculturalists, agronomists, veterinarians, food exporters, importers, academia, the scientific community and other stakeholders,” President Ali has always said.