Govt injects $45M to develop farm roads in North Rupununi

– to expand food production in Central Rupununi

In keeping with his Government’s food security agenda, President Dr Irfaan Ali on Sunday announced that $45 million has been allocated to develop farm roads in Aranaputa Valley, North Rupununi, Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo).
During a community meeting, the Head of State told a large gathering that a number of initiatives will be implemented to improve the community and the lives of the residents there.
Along with the roads, the Government, through the Agriculture Ministry, will provide a large quantity of peanut plants and cassava sticks to increase the village’s food production.
Additionally, the President said that scores of the village’s livestock will be artificially inseminated to improve their breed.
“We are pursuing an agenda through which every community must become food secure, and every community must play a part in national food security, and every community must contribute to Guyana becoming the number one food production zone for Caricom by 2030.”
The President also said that the Government will work towards improving the village’s sport facility.
“These are the things that will bring meaningful change, these are the things that will bring meaningful transformation,” he noted.
Only on Saturday, President Ali told residents of Parikwarinau, Central Rupununi of plans to expand the community’s food production capacity and its potential to earn income for households there.

He indicated that within the next three weeks, the Government, through the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, will also provide a supply of cassava sticks to expand the village’s production of cassava and farine.
The President, who spent the weekend in Region Nine, revealed earlier that day that Government will work with villages in South Pakaraima to launch a special agriculture project led by young people and women.
He told residents gathered at a meeting in Karasabai that the project will be done in consultation with the villagers.
“In every community, jointly with your resources and some of ours, I want us to see how we can launch an agricultural project that is sustainable but must be led by young people and women as far as possible… We cannot build this future unless we give you the tools,” the Head of State posited.
In the latter part of 2022, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Administration enacted a policy to ensure that local women and youth have a percentage of ownership in all new agricultural investments, as part of its efforts to make agriculture more sustainable.
“In Guyana, for example, we have now made a policy that all the new investment in agriculture, driven by technology, would have a percentage owned by women and youth. So, in all investments we’re making in livestock, 35 per cent of those farms must be owned by women and 30 per cent of those farms must be owned by youth.”
“This is how we’re going to ensure sustainability. If we’re not in a position to encourage the next generation, young people, to be part of agriculture and see it as something exciting, innovative, and challenging, that utilises technology, then we will not be able to create a sustainable framework for the production of food and the sustainability and resilience of the agriculture sector,” President Ali had stated while addressing the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) dialogue on Food Security in Latin America and the Caribbean in September 2022.
This falls into efforts by the Ali-led Government to make Guyana the leading food producer in the Region. Currently, President Ali is leading the Caribbean Community’s (Caricom) food security initiative, which aims to reduce the Region’s food import bill by 25 per cent by the year 2025.

Clay bricks
Meanwhile, during Saturday’s engagement in Parikwarinau, President Ali also announced that the Government will contract the community to produce 5000 clay bricks, with another order guaranteed after the first contract is honoured.
From the blocks that are produced, a portion will go to help the households within the community improve their homes.
In August last year, President Ali announced a $10 million project for Government to procure some 300,000 clay bricks from communities across the South and Central Rupununi to be used to push the hinterland housing programme.