All regions participating in Vision 25 by 2025

…Agri Minister tells Opposition, following allegations of neglecting hinterland regions

The Government has already expended billions into the agriculture sector and will continue to invest in all regions across the country.
This message was made by Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha during the third day of the 2024 budget debates in response to an earlier presentation by Opposition Parliamentarian with shadow responsibility for the agriculture sector, Vinceroy Jordan.
Both Parliamentarians clashed over hefty investments for the agriculture sector, given that $97.6 billion was set aside in this year’s for the advancement of the sector.
During his remarks to the National Assembly, Vinceroy Jordan claimed that the monies spent for the sector does not necessarily benefit a majority of farmers across the country.
In this regard, he asserted that agricultural production continues to be focused on the coast and not expanded into more rural and hinterland regions.
“Who do they think they will continue to fool for long time done short like left…Mr. Speaker like the honourable leader of the opposition Mr. Aubrey Compton Norton I share the views and visions that the peoples of region number one, two, seven, eight, nine and ten must be given the opportunity to develop their potential in agriculture to feed those regions and play also sir and integral role in placing Guyana not only as the bread basket of the Caribbean Sir but also the South American Nation that will feed the nations of the world,” Jordan stated.
Revitalised and developed
However, Mustapha debunked this claim, noting that many industries were revitalized and will be further developed in 2024.
On this point, he revealed that the Region One (Barima-Waini) was transformed into the central area for spices while villages in region nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Esequibo) are now producing their own rice and the construction of a new agro-processing facility in region seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) is aiding in the manufacturing of products.
Aside from expanded production along the coast, Mustapha said the government has already invested in expanded agriculture production in other regions.
“The young people of our country today they are not being told to go and do plantain chip, cook-up rice, and dog food and pepper sauce. Young people today are involved in agriculture…the hydroponics project that we’ll start regions two, five and ten will see over 300 young people on each project be involved. We are not telling them; we have a policy that Guyana becomes food secure,” The agriculture minister stated.
Further, Jordan stated that under the coalition government from 2015 to 2020, the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) received approximately $4 billion in budgetary provision to support the industry’s profitability.
He lamented that in three years, the PPP/C has invested more than $30 billion in the industry but significant gains have not been seen.
“Mr. Speaker we will continue to question the poor management and gross incompetence of this government when it comes to GuySuCo after knowing for a fact Sir what the VP Jagdeo did at Skeldon with that failure of a project Mr. Speaker,” Jordan stated.
In response, Mustapha rejected the comments, reminding those gathered at the National Assembly that the coalition government “closed estates and left thousands of people unemployed”.
And a result, PPP/C upon its return to office in 2020, was “forced to spend large sums” to reopen estates, so that production could recommence. “The sugar industry as I said we will continue revitalize and recapitalize because when we took over in 2020, when we went to these estates, we inherited damaged punts, damaged factories and fields were abandoned… today the sugar industry is once again becoming vibrant, we are seeing growth in the sugar industry, this year we have seen a 28 percent growth in the industry, last year sorry. And this year it will grow another 66 percent to ensure that we make 100 tonnes of sugar,” Minister Mustapha said.

Budget 2024
This year, $6 billion has been allocated to GuySuCo to help the corporation to bolster its production and operational efficiency.
In the 2022 and the 2023 Budget, GuySuCo received $6 billion and $4 billion in the national budgets, respectively, and this was supported by supplementary funding in both years.
Additionally, of the $97.6billlion budgeted for the agricultural sector $1.3 billion will be expended by Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) to support increased production and productivity in the rice industry.
In terms of other crops, cultivation of corn, soya bean, citrus, spices, coconuts, high-value crops such as broccoli, cauliflowers, bell peppers, romaine lettuce, carrots will expand.
In 2023, 40,000 seedlings were produced and 13,000 high yielding coconut seed nuts were imported to improve coconut productivity across the country with 1274 additional acres of coconuts were cultivated and 297 farmers benefited from training.
In 2024, government will continue to accelerate coconut production by investing 39,000 high-yielding seed nuts targeting 500 additional farmers.