Govt eyes producing organic sugar, developing cassava flour mill by leveraging science & technology

President Dr. Irfaan Ali has revealed that the Guyana Government intends to use science and technology to advance the agricultural sector. This includes initiatives such as developing an industrial cassava flour mill, producing refined and organic sugar, and establishing a regional data facility.
During the launch of the Regional Economic Agri-Insurance Programme (REAP), the Head of State mentioned that these initiatives are being pursued in collaboration with partners such as the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and others.
He explained that these initiatives are aimed at enhancing Guyana’s research capabilities to support decision-making and policy development, as well as to improve the viability of products and crops.

“For too long we’ve been without data, we’ve made decisions without having the right research on soil type, on what is the best possible utilisation of land, best possible utilisation of our waters. So, research and development are a critical part of this whole infrastructure and eco-system that supports sustainability and resilience… We’ve been able to increase cassava by just investing in research and development. The FAO has worked with us but IICA has been strong with us on this to bring in new variety. We have increased production by a 100 per cent,” Ali told the gathering.
He added, “Years ago, we were experimenting with cassava flour but we never had enough production to support it. We’ve increased production now to the extent that we have enough production to justify a full cassava flour mill in the country,” he said, adding that this can be developed on an industrial scale.
“We want that cassava flour mill to do two things. One, production differentiation, you can have 100% cassava flour or you can have 50/50 and it goes to niche markets internationally…,” the President outlined.
In addition, he announced that Guyana is working to create a regional situation room, a center of excellence, and a data facility.
“We’ve already set aside resources for this. We are building this situation room and this regional data center that will house progressive data and will also analyse future trends. The center of excellence that is linked to the data room will be linked to farmers directly. So, by an app, the farmers can open up and see what the next twenty days look like based on the analysis. We also cater for if a farmer reports a pest in the region we could do tracking and traceability and we can do education programmes through the centre of excellence.”
Ali also stressed the importance of using technology to expand Guyana’s sugar industry, especially as the country moves to capitalise on refined sugar.
“We already have a proposal on hand for the refining of brown sugar and we’re working with the private sector on the establishment of a refinery to have the white sugar and also looking at the possibility of liquid sugar… Important to this is now we’re looking at an experiment of organic sugar and to see how organic sugar is a niche market that carries a different pricing mechanism,” he added.
Guyana is currently chairing the Caribbean Community (Caricom) Ministerial Task Force on Food Production and Food Security, which has been driving the ‘25 by 2025’ initiative seeking to boost food production within the region to reduce food imports.
Vision 25 by 2025 aims for the Caribbean to achieve a 25 per cent reduction in the Region’s food import bill by 2025. Owing to the Region’s dependency on imported foods, it faces hardships when disruptions occur.
In light of this, the intention was to formulate a sense of food stability and security… country by country, with Guyana playing a key role in helping other countries achieve greater food security.