-President Ali reiterates economic empowerment for women, young people

PRESIDENT Irfaan Ali on Saturday affirmed his commitment to empower women and young people with entrepreneurship skills in climate smart agriculture.
The President made the commitment during a visit to the community of Sand Hill, Region Three (Essequiob Islands-West Demerara) where there are some 30 households involved in farming. As such, the President promised to help the residents construct a shade house at the back of each home. He wants women and young people to take charge of this project.

“Everybody set up a shade house behind your house. The women and (young people) should lead this. We will give you roofing materials and you have the wood in here. We will come in and train you how to use it,” the President promised. He advised that crops like celery, shallot, lettuce, and sweet pepper can be cultivated under the shade house.

“We believe in empowering families. Based on our calculation, at a minimum, that shade house can give you $700,000 annually; that’s money that you didn’t have. That money can repay the low-income mortgage for a house every month and still give you money in your pocket. So, in effect, you are now increasing your net asset because you now have a house,” President Irfaan said as he encouraged residents to start pursuing these opportunities.

He said that the residents can decide on how they will proceed with this new opportunity.
“Fifteen homes can do shade houses and 15 can do honey production. We will bring the training, give you the protective equipment and give you hives. We just want to get you in production. We can do 25 hives in your community and we expand it from there.”

The President told the farming community that food production and tourism are two sectors in the economy that are long-term, sustainable, viable and very profitable and both areas have tremendous potential in Sand Hill. He intends to have the Ministry of Tourism establish a small facility that is powered by solar energy and is sustained by its own food production where tourists can visit to experience Agro-type of ecotourism.
“When you have tourism, if you have a facility, tourists can come every week. You can bottle your honey and sell organic honey. These are the opportunities you can pursue. So, I will ask you to think about this. The future is bright for us,” President Ali stated.

The next development phase for the rural community will see the development of 60 acres of farmlands; two acres each will be assigned to a farmer; this is in addition to what the farmers are currently doing. The land will be dedicated to specific production.

“We can do plantains which takes about nine months and we can intercrop with watermelons and pumpkins. We will help with capital investment of land preparation and drainage and as a community, you take care of the 60 acres and then we fix the cost for that crop at a competitive price so that the processors can also have value. We will be helping the processing market and you,” President Ali lamented.
Plantain, Banana, Pepper and Cherry are some of the crops the residents were urged to focus on. The government is also looking to invest in two cargo boats for the Demerara River which will help farmers transport their produce with ease.

The President reminded the villagers that the Ministry of Agriculture, through NAREI and GLDA, has invested $15.5 million in the community since 2023. He promised to make further investments which would benefit the village and the country by extension.

Also present at Saturday’s meeting was Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha. He spoke at length about the potential Sand Hill has to make lots of food. He said that Caricom leaders have decided to reduce the food import bill by 25 percent by the end of 2025 and thus, the government has been looking for ways to increase the production of traditional crops.

“We are developing drainage and we will ensure you have proper planting materials. We will change the way we have been doing things and modernize the agriculture sector. We will look at climate-smart agriculture because climate change is real in this part, when we used to have three, five to six inches of rainfall in two and three months, we seeing it in two hours now,” the Agriculture Minister emphasised.

While Guyana is already producing 60 per cent of the food consumed, the government is looking to eventually produce all the food consumed and reclaim the title “Breadbasket of the Caribbean.”