By Bebi Shafeah Oosman
AS a result of the ongoing construction of the Hope-like Canal, approximately 35,000 acres of land will be opened up for agricultural and economic development.
This major infrastructural project is expected to improve drainage and irrigation systems, reduce flooding, and create new opportunities for farming, investment, and employment within the region.
The expansion of accessible and productive land will significantly contribute to increased agricultural output and support the long-term growth and sustainability of communities in Black Bush Polder.
Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha, “While I am speaking here, in a few months, we will have approximately 35,000 acres of land that will become available with the construction of the high-level canals in this part from Number 68 to Manchester, and the Canje area so the entire Corentyne Coast, you have a new set of land 35,000 acre of new land.”
Minister Mustapha advised the Black Bush Polder farmers to start their application process to apply for the land, noting: “I am now advising you to start your application process… those persons who don’t have land because a time will come when people will apply for those same lands… when we will develop the same land and when those lands will come into cultivation for either cash crop, livestock or rice farming.”
Mustapha also spoke of the need to change the way in which agriculture is done and look at diversification.
“We can go into high valued crops,” he said, noting that such will put more money in their pockets.
He noted that, in 2022, President Irfaan Ali had informed him that the country had imported $2.6 billion in high valued crops.
“Things like brocolli, cauliflower, carrots, lettuce, bell peppers, those are the things we have imported in country for the hospitality issues,” he said.
The Head of State related that in order to start producing such crops, the government came up with the Agriculture Innovation Entrepreneurship Programme.
“[With the programme] young people who would have passed through the Guyana School of Agriculture, we harnessed their potential and today we got hundreds of shade houses across the country, and the same crop that we used to import now we are producing,” he said.
The multimillion-dollar irrigation canal is slated to be constructed from Canje Creek to Crabwood Creek to provide proper irrigation at a cost of $300 million.
According to Mustapha, this was a request from farmers and he had pledged to have it placed in the budget and this was done.
“Next week, you will see the advertisement in newspaper for the commencement of the canal,” he told farmers in the Upper Corentyne area during a meeting on Saturday.
