From dehydrated cook-up to portable kitchen gardens

…entrepreneurial ideas that won 2021 Green Tech Fund

By Jarryl Bryan

Since 2017, the Green Business Technology Fund of the Small Business Bureau (SBB) has awarded 34 entrepreneurs $1 million each to help towards developing and launching their business ideas.
This year, the 12 winners whose ideas triumphed were each awarded their $1 million cheque during a ceremony at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) on Tuesday.
Of the dozens of persons who were awarded grants this year, at least three spoke about their innovative business ideas. Their ideas range from a portable kitchen garden to the silver bullet against car jackers and kidnappers, to local cuisines that can be carried around in your pocket and instantly prepared with some water and a microwave.

In the case of Lemuel Williams of LTech, a recent graduate of the Bishop’s High School and, in fact, one of the youngest winners the Fund has ever had, his business idea has enormous scope: a Global Positioning System (GPS) tracker that does not need internet to work, but rather telephone towers.
“My business is a startup business that solely depends on the success of the research and development phase of a GPS tracker. In Guyana, there are a lot of solutions when it comes to GPS tracking…. Almost all of them require internet access for you to track those systems,” the entrepreneur explained.
“However, we’re still a developing country, and as such, not everyone actually has internet access on their devices or their laptops, especially on the road or in the backdams. However, you might find in a lot of places in the country they have access to a service like GTT or Digicel,” Williams added.

He said his solution is a GPS tracker that uses the GSM modules of these services, enabling persons to track their vehicles – or a person – without the use of the internet. He noted that, with the grant, he can improve on the prototype. Williams also has aspirations of extending his service regionally, once all his paperwork is in order.
“In Guyana, a lot of carjackings are taking place. And sadly, there have been no efforts to actually solve that issue… Hopefully, with this solution here, at the end of it all, we can have a product made locally, solve this problem, and will utilise our local networks, so we don’t have to worry about internet,” he explained.

Dehydrated foods
Another entrepreneur who was successful was Tasmine Pellew of Tas Foods, who hails from the mining town of Linden. Her business idea, which she said is already in the hands of soldiers in the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), is for Guyanese cuisines like pepperpot, cook-up and other delicacies to be packaged in a dehydrated form for ease of carry and a prolonged shelf life.
“When I studied at the Guyana School of Agriculture, I had a passion for dehydration. Dehydration is basically taking moisture out of anything and having it last for six months to a year. So, when I got back home to Linden, somebody told me about a project in the GDF in which they use (MRE) ready to eat meals.
“So, I got to doing cook-up rice, parboiled rice, and pasta. These are all ready within 10 minutes. We have it in spicy, pepperpot and regular flavours. If you’re like me, a working mom, when you get home, you’re not the type to cook for hours over a stove, this is the ideal thing for you,” she explained.

She noted that her product also has potential for soldiers or anyone who is off-road. All that is needed is some hot water.
Meanwhile, Nehru Narine’s winning business idea is a portable kitchen garden. According to Narine, the idea is to have a portable unit in which persons can plant small crops… a unit that can be moved in times of need, such as flooding, thus preventing damage to their crops.
“It’s a very simple setup. It consists of a metal framework that has an elevated garden box. The benefit of that is that it’s raised above the ground so that (it will not be subject to) the effects of flooding. It’s also compartmentalised using PVC plastics or pipes, so you can have a hydraulics system within the garden,” he explained.
“We’re also going to have a cover made out of UV plastics, that will permit sunlight and also keep the carbon dioxide levels within, to increase photosynthesis and growth of the plant, and production,” he said.
He added that the outside of the container would be painted to give it an aesthetic value.
Some examples of the crops that can be planted within this portable garden are callaloo, eschallot, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, onions and garlic. According to Narine, his company, N.M. Proficient Contracting Services, would provide support services to customers.