Major boost for agri, jobs, infrastructure – Jagdeo tells Corriverton

The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) is promising more support for the agriculture sector should they be returned to office.
The assurance was given by General Secretary (GS) of the PPP/C, Bharrat Jagdeo who is also the Vice President (VP) of the country. Addressing a rally in Corriverton, Corentyne hosted by the PPP on Friday evening, Jagdeo compared the support given to the agriculture sector, mainly farmers, by the previous administration with the support the sector received from the current administration over the past five years.

He said between 2015 and 2020, the treatment meted out to farmers by the Government was harsh.
Between 2015 and 2020, under the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Coalition Government, the agricultural sector in Guyana experienced significantly diminished Governmental attention and investment.
In fiscal terms, the annual budget allocation shrank from approximately GY$15.4 billion in 2014 – the final full year under PPP/C – to around GY$13.1 billion by 2019; indicating a decline rather than growth in support. Agriculture was largely seen as a private sector issue, and inefficiencies were common – such as GY$14 million spent on maintaining just seven vehicles over two years, according to the Auditor General (AG).

In contrast, Jagdeo highlighted the PPP/C’s achievements since 2020: the agriculture budget rose from G$18.4 billion in 2020 to G$97.6 billion in 2024, with a record G$104.6 billion allocated in 2025. These increases were matched by expanded infrastructure, drainage and irrigation work, and strong institutional support.
Starting in 2020, the agriculture sector received approximately G$18.4 billion, marking the beginning of a sustained push to revitalise the industry.
By 2024, the budget for agriculture jumped dramatically to GY$97.6 billion, compared to around GY$60 billion in 2023. In 2025, the Government further stepped up support with a historic GY$104.6 billion budget allocation. Jagdeo said there will be more support given to the agriculture sector in a major way. However, he told residents of the Upper Corentyne, that it was not only agriculture that will be further boosted if the PPP/C is re-elected to Government, but also there will be more jobs available.
“In this region alone, the project that Ashni [Finance Minister] mentioned that we are doing, the canals would open up 30,000 acres of land that we will be able to give to new people to go into farming right here where we have 26,000 acres at Skeldon, the old GuySuCo (Guyana Sugar Corporation) project. And we have maybe another 40,000 acres among some of the co-ops in the Crabwood Creek area. We intend to build a road from Moleson Creek all the way to Orealla to open up more lands and then get all of these lands into agriculture. About 100,000 acres of land right here; generating jobs, doing agro-processing maybe building a warfare to ship right out from the Corentyne,” he announced. Jagdeo told the thousands at the rally that there is more investment in infrastructural development. While noting that some have already commenced, he said almost US$500 million will be on a project that has already been awarded to build the new 4-lane road from Moleson Creek and the new high-span Berbice River Bridge, which is to be constructed.
He said too that the overall objective is to expand all sectors, including the tourism sector.

“More support to agriculture in a major way. More support to training, as Ashni told you about the training college we built here at Port Mourant so that many young people and others can be trained even in the hospitality sector to staff the twelve new international hotels that are being built now in Guyana – that will need about 6,000 new people to work in those hotels. This is what will happen in the next term,” the GS pointed out. Meanwhile, Minister with responsibility for Finance Dr Ashni Singh also speaking at the meeting noted that the PPP/C has kept true to int 2020 manifesto promises. “When we return to Government we immediately set about delivering on the promises that we made in that manifesto. You would recall that under VP Jagdeo’s leadership we moved immediately to present an emergency budget and in that emergency budget we moved, we wasted no time in starting to deliver our promises.
We immediately repealed 200 hardship taxes that APNU had brutally placed on the people of Guyana and who was bearing the brunt of those 200 plus taxes but the people of Guyana. You were bearing the brunt of those 200 plus taxes,” Minister Singh emphasised referring to Berbicians.