Agriculture Minister announces

CATTLE rearing in Bath/Referendum, West Coast Berbice will be further promoted with the availability of pastures for residents and farmers.

This was announced by Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha during a farmers’ meeting hosted at Teekharam’s residence, Bath/Referendum on Saturday.

The minister was joined by Minister of Public Service, Sonia Parag, Regional Vice Chairman, Rion Peters, Member of Parliament, Faizal Jafferally, representatives of MMA/ADA, other officials and staff of the ministry.

Concerns about getting access to lands to graze their livestock were brought up by cattle farmers.

Rice farmers stated that the cattle are accessing their fields and eating their rice, resulting in significant losses.

The minister noted that the ministry will work towards developing the pastures which will help to bring a resolution to the problems being encountered by the rice, livestock and cash crop farmers.

“Dr Walrond is working now to develop 5,000 acres of pastures so that, you, the farmers will benefit…We will work with you to ensure that you have good pastures. What we will be doing in the new year, we will have a 65 acre plot for small-scale farmers…We will continue to work with you to expand on those productions to get better yields while reducing the costs of production,” Minister Mustapha explained.

The ministry’s sub-agencies will implement new programmes to work along with the farmers to modernise their plots while executing climate-smart agriculture practices.

Minister Mustapha told the farmers that since the government assumed office in 2020, there has been an upsurge in agricultural activities in Guyana to increase the food system.

To ensure that farmers have the planting materials required to support the large-scale production of a number of fruits and vegetables, Minister Mustapha informed the farmers that the ministry was also creating a Germplasm facility.

Minister Mustapha stated that President, Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali will be honoured by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) for his exemplary and strategic work to further advance Guyana’s growth and development.

Meanwhile, Minister Parag highlighted, “We want to be able to serve people on the ground to listen and understand what affects them and be able to have a solution that can ease or bring relief to those persons.” (DPI)