President Ali says

PRESIDENT Dr Irfaan Ali underscored the government’s objective of restoring productivity to communities and declared that he would settle for nothing less than 400 acres of land for cultivating red beans in Baracara.

The Head of State made those remarks on Sunday, while visiting the Baracara community in Region Six and spoke on plans for continued agricultural development in the region.
In pursuit of that objective, he informed the assembled community members that he had inquired about the designated land area for red bean cultivation and was informed of a mere 25 acres.

However, President Ali indicated that he would not be accepting anything below four hundred acres of land to be prepared for the production of red beans and black-eye beans.
“We are going to put the tractor and plough to work but I am not going to accept anything below four hundred acres of land in red beans. So, we’re going to put the land to work, we’re going to put the machinery, we are going to put the labour.”
In light of this context, Dr. Ali stated that the government will allocate funds for the acquisition of tractors and ploughs in order to facilitate the production process and aid in land preparation.

“We have to ensure that we not only make the investment but that we make the investment work for us,” he added.
Further, he indicated that the purpose of what was being done was to put land back into production and bring productivity back to communities.
To this end, he noted that there are three factors of production of which labour and land are two and noted that if the land is not in a state of readiness, labour cannot be deployed and if the land is in a state of readiness and labour is lapsing, then the community is not taking advantage of the land.

As such he stressed the need for labour support from members of the community to which they affirmed and applauded the move by the president.
In August, President Ali led a technical team to several communities along the Berbice River where assessments were done for the large-scale production of red beans and black eye beans.

At that time, communities like Tacama, Kimbia, Mara and Moleson Creek were visited as the aim was to bring at least 1,000 acres into cultivation before the end of the year.
Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha, said that the initiative was part of the government’s vision to position Guyana as a hub for food production.