–Minister Anand Persaud says, encourages Region Six residents to position themselves to tap opportunities

MINISTER within the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, Anand Persaud, has urged residents of Region Six to position themselves to absorb opportunities from the burgeoning poultry feed sector which is being developed by the government.
“We are investing heavily in agriculture, but I made the point that just at Ebini, in a year and a half from now, Guyana will be self-sufficient in producing poultry, pigs and various other feeds for animals and I am asking the people in Region Six to look at diversifying into that area because there will be a market for it,” Minister Persaud said in his address to residents, during a Cabinet outreach to Region Six on Monday.
The minister clarified that the plan is not only for poultry feed to be utilised locally, but also for products to be packaged and exported.
“If you look at developing our agricultural sector in a big way, with Guyana being the bread basket of the Caribbean, we have to look at agro-processing and once we get involved in growing agro processing coupled with cheap electricity Guyana is good to go,” Minister Persaud said.
In 2021, Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha, had said that some 250 acres of land were being prepared in Tacama, Region 10, to cultivate corn and soya bean locally for livestock feed. The project, according to Minister Mustapha, was conceptualised to reduce the high import cost on this necessity.
“Over the years, we have been importing to Guyana corn and soya and it’s almost close to US$30 million; it will help us to save that foreign exchange and help us have regular protein for the poultry industry and not only the poultry industry, but the fishing industry,” Minister Mustapha said, adding: “We will be self-sufficient in producing all the proteins for the poultry and fishing industry in Guyana.”
Six local companies and a regional firm had joined together to undertake the massive project that could set Guyana on the path to becoming self-sufficient in corn and soya bean production over the next few years.
The owners of Guyana Stock Feed Limited, Royal Chicken, Edun Farms, SBM Wood, Dubulay Ranch and Bounty Farm Limited, along with the Brazilian-owned N F Agriculture, have partnered to produce soya bean and corn for both the local and regional markets.
“We have had a number of investors who have indicated their interest of coming into that part of production, so this trial will be very important to us and there are a number of persons who are involved from the private sector; they are like me, very optimistic that we will have a very good trial run and then go into full production,” Minister Mustapha said.
To support the growth of this major venture, the government, in its 2022 budget, took the initiative to rehabilitate 47 kilometers of a vital farm-to-market road – the Ituni-Tacama road – starting from the junction of the Linden-Ituni road and heading east, towards the Berbice River.
Upon completion, this project will open up approximately 61,000 hectares of prime farmland in the Tacama, Wiruni, and Ebini Savannahs on the eastern side of the Berbice River.
Essentially, that will create space for the expansion of the corn and soya bean cultivation, which has so far produced positive results.
The success of this trial has led to a decision by the private sector to increase to 2,700 acres of land for commercial trials in 2022. This will result in 1,500 tonnes of soya bean and 3,000 tonnes of corn being harvested in the second half of this year.
With the anticipated success of the commercial trial, cultivation is expected to ramp up to 12,500 acres in 2023, 25,000 acres in 2025 and 56,000 acres in 2028. To this end, $102 million was expended in 2021 and a further $426 million is budgeted in 2022 to complete the road to facilitate the expansion of the project.