set to supply high-valued crops, help reduce imports

WITH a regional goal of reducing the food-import bill of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) by 25 percent by 2025, Guyana has made significant strides to boost the production of various crops to do its part in this effort.

AS part of achieving this goal, a hydroponics project was recently launched by the National Agricultural and Extension Institute (NAREI) at Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara.
On Thursday afternoon, President, Dr Irfaan Ali, conducted a site visit to the farm where he received updates on the ongoing project.
During his walk-through of the facility, the Head of State was informed of the current capacity at the farm’s nursery, which has a capacity for 100,000 plants. As it is now, there are only 25,000 plants in the nursery which includes kale, lettuce and pak choi, among others.
When he enquired as to when the farm would meet the full capacity of 100,000 plants, he was informed that within two weeks that goal would be achieved.
Dr Ali said that a capacity of that scale if done in the traditional way would have taken up approximately 15 acres of land; however, with this way it’s being done on less land and there will be consistency in the produce.

It was revealed that in total there were 15 herbs being cultivated on the farm including mustard, basil, chai, thyme, and local and foreign varieties of pak choi.
The Head of State said that planting crops that are usually imported will replace the need for that import and further provide export for other countries.
“The intention of this facility is to build additional facilities like this one to meet the entire CARICOM needs for these crops and export from here,” he said, adding that the next phase includes introducing modern aquaculture tanks.
Further, youths who are part of the project said to the President that the farm is being run on a nutrient film technique which uses nutrient solutions to grow the plants without the need for fertilisers.

It was further disclosed that the environment is also one that is pest-free, as it is a controlled one which in turn means there is no need for the use of fungicides and pesticides on the crops.

Meanwhile, in early September, Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha told members of the media that the high-value crops cultivated in the hydroponics system would be evaluated.
At that time, he noted that the first phase of the project a 2000-square-metre, cutting-edge system would be set up. The system comprises a cold room, packaging space, harvesting tools, irrigation controllers, a water recycling system and emergency water storage.

The project uses a three-phase hydroponics production system based on nutrient film techniques and soilless production systems, and was estimated to cost some US$15.750 million.