NAREI’s pest control staff benefit from regional training
As Guyana aims to reclaim the title of “bread basket of the Caribbean”, the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) is working to ensure when it reaches that stage, there are no obstacles.
According to Chief Plant Protection Officer of the National Plant Protection Organisation (NPPO), Brian Sears, Government has already placed much emphasis on assisting farmers in pushing agriculture forward and in diversifying their produce.
A section of participants at the Regional Pest Control Training held at NAREI
Additionally, NAREI has been working with a number of agencies and farmers in its attempt to enhance diversification while the NPPO is looking at methods to contain, control, or eradicate pests.
On Monday, staffers from NPPO participated in a two-day Regional Pest Prioritisation and Pest Risk Analysis Training hosted by the Caribbean Agricultural Health and Food Safety Agency (CAHFSA) at NAREI’s Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara head office.
The staffers were trained in the use of the National Pest Prioritisation Tool and the Principles and Procedures for Pest Risk Analysis. The session will be delivered by Juliet Goldsmith, Plant Health Specialist of CAHFSA and Dr Govind Seepersad, Agricultural Economist, University of the West Indies.
Sears pointed out, “The workshop will go a long way in enhancing our ability to export and may even assist in speeding up the exportation process, especially when we take into consideration the number of requests that we get for our local produce for export and request for information to conduct pest risk analysis for importation, an area in which I know we are limited.”
These training sessions are also being done in Antigua, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Jamaica, St Lucia, St Vincent, Suriname, Trinidad, and Turks and Caicos.
To detect pests in the United States, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPA) developed the New Pest Response Guidelines (NPRG), which were used in the training sessions to enhance Guyana’s pest prioritisation capabilities for early pest detection and for the implementation of rapid response for pest control.
