As part of the Sustainable Agricultural Development Programme (SADP) a new model farm was on Saturday commissioned at Fort Wellington, West Coast Berbice, Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice).
The $16.3 million facility was financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in support of the Agriculture Ministry’s technology transfer programme that is currently being implemented.
It will cater for research and demonstrations to farmers.
The research and demonstration farm sits on one acre of land and will assist with the improvement of the Ministry’s research and extension system and includes $1.5 million in equipment.
Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha and IDB Resident Representative in Guyana, Lorena Solorzano Salazar
The model farm will cater for cash crop and livestock farmers, as well as nearby schools in Region Five. About forty extension officers are attached to it.
IDB Resident Representative in Guyana, Lorena Solorzano Salazar, speaking at the launching ceremony on Saturday said for the IDB, a modern and effective research and extension service is key for the transformation and development of the agricultural sector.
“This will contribute to food security and play a role in addressing the four major challenges the Bank has identified for the agricultural sector.”
She identified the challenges as being increasing production, reducing environmental impact, reducing inequality and poverty and produce healthy food.
“The research and demonstration farms address these challenges. They are a key link between agricultural research and farmers, especially small and medium sized producers that may not have access to other sources of information on new and innovative agricultural practices, as well as farm management best technique,” Salazar explained.
A section of the gathering at the launching of the model farm
She noted that support for the research and demonstration farms is complementary to other types of support provided by the SADP which include grants for improved technology adoption and farmer training.
It is expected that over 3000 farmers will benefit from the new facility.
Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha underscored the importance of farmers utilising best practices. He said the programme is a part of the Government’s commitment to foster innovation, resilience and sustainability within the agriculture sector.
New approaches needed
He noted that many farmers continue to farm the same way their fore parents did. This practice, he said, must be changed and new approaches to farming adapted if farmers want so realise increased production while at the same time focusing on cost reduction, efficiency and sustainability.
“Farms like this are being established across the country to help to achieve best practices and have better innovation and better skills so that you can implement them in your farm holdings.”
He noted that his Ministry has been revamping the extension services that it has been provided to farmers across the country.
“We recognise that many of our extension officers have to be more responsive to the needs of the farmers; many of them sometimes are not meeting the farmers and not working with them. So, we have been working with international organisations like IICA (Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture), the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) and the IDB (Inter-American Development Bank) to help us to help us to revamp and change the way our extension services officers have been working across this country. We are now giving them the necessary skills, instruments and equipment so that they can have real-time interventions,” the Agriculture Minister explained.
The farm will have shade houses to show farmers how to utilise best practices, cattle and small ruminants as well as birds. The farm also has a storage room, features plots of different types of grass to feed animals and will also facilitate training programmes for farmers.
“But this is not all for the farmers, we are working very closely with the Ministry of Education and we are working to resuscitate the agriculture department in the various schools and have students come here to have their practical sessions. These farms that we are building across the country are to ensure that we develop our agriculture sector,” Mustapha added.
He noted that there is a need to provide planting material for farmers as Government is seeking to have farmers involved in large-scale production.
“We will be building a tissue culture lab so that we can produce billions of planting material, different variety of planting materials and they will be available to the farmers of our country.”
According to Mustapha, funding for the tissue culture lab has already been acquired. (G4)
