ALMOST 300 private cane farmers in Region Three on Monday received a one-off $150, 000 grant from the government.

Vice-President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo spearheaded the distribution exercise at the Winsdor Forest Community Centre. He was accompanied by Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha and other officials of the Ministry of Agriculture.

A total of $44 million in grants were distributed to 294 persons.

Adrian Clato, who was among the beneficiaries, told the Guyana Chronicle that the funds will help keep his household afloat.

“This is a great help to us because, when we had no work, we had a hard time. And I want to say thanks to the government for this little money that will help me out grocery-wise and stuff,” he said.

Clato noted that cane-cutters have been “struggling” for some time now, and the relief could not come at a better time.

Meanwhile, Abrahim Peterson, who has been a cane-cutter for more than a decade, noted that he, too, has been having a difficult time following the closure of the sugar estates.

“It’s been very hard on us, you know, and this money will help out a lot,” the man said.

Rohan Persuad, who has been a cane farmer for more than 20 years, said that he, too, is grateful for the assistance.

Persaud, who works alongside his older brother, noted that, of late, times have been hard on them. He emphasised that the relief will see them contributing to their households.

During Monday’s exercise, Dr. Jagdeo encouraged the cane farmers to use the funds wisely, and invest in other skills and vocational training.

He noted that with the anticipated boom in investments in the region, residents must be equipped with the skills and knowledge to benefit from it.

One of the many projected investments is the Wales gas-to-shore project.

“We are acquiring some land, and by the end of the year, you will see a contract awarded to build a power plant at Wales, and a NGO facility; a natural gas liquid facility,” VP Jagdeo said.

“That facility that we’re building there would supply twice as much the power that GPL [Guyana Power Light] supplies to the whole country now. That one facility there would be producing twice as much; it would mean we’d have enough power for the whole country,” he added.

The Vice-President also advised the beneficiaries to capitalise on the many educational and technical programmes that are being offered by the government.

“A lot of work will be here, but it requires different sorts of skills, so you have to prepare for that future too. That future will require welders,” he said, adding: “We have seven new hotels under construction; they will need 3,000 people to work in those hotels. Some of the hotels will shift across the river, because we’re building one key infrastructure that will make every investor who wanted to go to Region Four come over here.”