Guyana’s agri sector can generate revenues similar to oil industry – Mustapha

Guyana could earn as much money from agriculture as it would from its oil and gas resources, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha has said. He was at the time addressing farmers along the East Bank Berbice, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) corridor where he pointed out that while much is being said about the revenue that Guyana has been receiving from oil, the Agriculture Ministry is seeking to make agriculture one of the main pillars of Guyana’s economy. Several initiatives are being implemented to ensure the country earns more from agriculture. Significant investments are being made in producing new crops while efforts are actively ongoing to expand other subsectors. Among those is aquaculture. Shrimp – the ones which are harvested on the Corentyne and East Coast Berbice has a high demand in the diaspora. Referred to as the black shrimp, the shell creatures which only strive in areas where both fresh and saltwater meet, can carry a price of up to US$100 for a five-gallon bucket when exported to North America. They need a certain amount of alkaline in the water to survive. And hence, the Corentyne and East Coast Berbice are the only places they are found in Guyana. Currently, local production cannot satisfy the overseas market. Since taking up the mantle as Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha has been trying to increase the production of black shrimp. The project is being done in two phases and according to the Agriculture Minister, 90 per cent of the first phase has been completed and production has significantly increased. “The immediate aim of that project was to increase production from 250,000 kilograms to 500,000 kilograms and we have already achieved that although we have not completed the project as yet. We have completed 63 of the 70 established pounds. We have another 7 to complete and that will end the first phase. In the second phase, we will be doing another 70 pounds and we will continue to work with those farmers. The farmers are seeing that in the rural communities this will create more jobs for them.”

He noted that there is now interest to build a processing plant for the shrimp. This will see the shrimp being sold less as a primary product and will add value to the product.
The processing of other food items is also one of the focuses of the Ministry.
Moreover, the Ministry is promoting agriculture in smarter ways and farmers are being encouraged to have greenhouses and also to focus on “high-value crops” such as carrots, cauliflower and broccoli.

Imported
Since becoming Agriculture Minister in August 2020, over 150 shade houses have been built by that Ministry around the country to help farmers to produce their crops in a better way. Additionally, inland prawn cultivation is to commence soon on the Upper East Bank Berbice. According to the Minister, 1000 acres will be used for the project which his Ministry is spearheading. Apart from that, the hotel industry, he explained, has been increasing its demand for those high-value crops. “We have a ready market in Guyana and we are not making use of it,” he noted. However, there is also a need to consolidate the production of traditional crops. In addition to that, the Ministry is seeking to have farmers diversify and produce other non-traditional crops – things that will bring benefit to the entire country.

These are just some of the initiatives the Agriculture Minister believes will boost revenue and make the industry one of the economic pillars of the country and even earn as much as oil and gas. “We want this economy to build on various sectors. Agriculture must be an important pillar, oil and gas must be an important pillar so that we have many pillars holding up this economy so it will be able to withstand shock and it cannot crash. While we are having oil and gas revenue and we anticipate that oil and gas revenue will be large, we must challenge ourselves for agriculture to compete with oil and gas so that we can bring revenue too like oil and gas. I know we can do that. We have the capacity to do that,” he said to thunderous applause. (G4)