–works on Tacama corn, soya plant
ACHIEVING food security while slashing Guyana’s Food Import Bill by 25 per cent by 2025 is the government’s top priority, and to achieve this goal, multiple projects are being rolled out by the Ministry of Agriculture.
The ministry, through the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), recently issued an Invitation for Bids (IFB) seeking suitable and qualified bidders to do external works on the corn and soya bean conditioning and storage plant at Tacama, Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).

According to an engineer, $97,579,490 is estimated to be the cost to execute the external works, which consists of fence and internal road network for the conditioning and storage plant in Tacama.
Additionally, the Agriculture Ministry is pursuing bidders to construct an estimated $55,570,420 control structure at Burma main drain, Mahaicony, Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice).

Bids for the project are to be submitted by July 18, 2023, at the office of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB).
Bidders must submit one hard copy and two electronic copies of the tenders, sealed in separate envelopes and labelled accordingly.
According to the IFB, bidding will be conducted through the National Committee Bidding (NCB) procedures, as specified in the Procurement Act 2003 and Regulations 2004.

Bidders are asked to adhere to all of the necessary requests for information found in the tender documents, and valid certificates of compliance from the Guyana Revenue Authority and the National Insurance Scheme must accompany the standard bidding documents.

Regarding the developments at Tacama, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha had said that the new facilities will provide employment opportunities and boost the nation’s food sector.
Minister Mustapha related that the government spends almost $60 million to import the two products. However, they are now cultivating the commodities locally with the intention of exporting.

“We [government] have started the production of corn and soya in the intermediate savannah; we started to build facilities there and in another two-three months, we’ll have those facilities complete. We want to produce more…that is why we are expanding…those foods we have been importing, we want to start producing them locally and that is why we ventured into new crops,” the Agriculture Minister said.

Meanwhile, another $150 million was set aside in this year’s budget for constructing a wharf in the area.
It will provide easy river access to the land under cultivation, making it more accessible for farmers to transport their produce.
“In just under three years we have seen budgetary allocation to the agriculture sector move from $13 billion to $32 billion. Why have we invested in it? Why have we doubled it? Because we see the need to improve the infrastructure in our country. We see the need to ensure that we prepare the agriculture area in a way that farmers can have it easier to produce,” Mustapha said.