Over 1000 youths now shareholders in Govt-backed agri company

More than two years after Government had launched a company, the Agriculture Innovation Entrepreneurship Programme (AIEP), more than 1000 young people have been attracted to the initiative, and they are all shareholders of this company, whose portfolio of climate smart agricultural projects continues to grow.
Designed to ensure retention of the skills of past and present agriculture students as well as those with experience in the sector, the AIEP was first launched in 2022, and Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha revealed on Tuesday that the initiative has since grown to attract more than 1000 participants.

Addressing youths in Region Five, where the programme is looking to make inroads with the cultivation of five acres of land under various agricultural projects, Minister Mustapha said, “Young people today, many young people today, don’t want to get involved in agri food systems. They think agriculture is a menial physical job for people who never went to school. And we have many young people that went to the University of Guyana, got a degree, come out with an agronomy degree, with a diploma from the Guyana School of Agriculture, and they’re doing clerical work. The President said we have to harness all this expertise; we have to bring them into the system.”
According to Mustapha, this is where the idea for the Agriculture Innovation Entrepreneurship Programme came into being, as the idea was to form a company. The fact that the programme has grown to include 1000 youths is a testament to its success, the minister said.
In fact, reports are that some $30 million in revenue has already been generated through the programme.
“We said, ‘Let us form a company. Form a company and make these people shareholders of this company’. And we formed a company called the Agriculture Innovation Entrepreneurship Programme. And from that time to now, we have more than 1000 young people; young, bright people like you in this programme.”
He continued, “We started out with the climate smart agriculture, where we have a number of shade houses, and we’re doing this now in a more scientific, modern way; less labour intensive. And today, many young people who never wanted to get involved in the food system, they are today now earning their livelihood from agriculture.”

Innovative
As at December 2023, the entrepreneurship programme had earned $25.4 million from the production and sale of high-value crops. Minister Mustapha had said at his year-end press conference that earnings generated by the project would be paid to the youths as dividends.
“We know for a fact that this was a very innovative project, where we formed a company and we have made these young people shareholders. To date, we have seen earnings of over $25 million from this project. These young people will receive the dividends from this project as shareholders. So, these are encouragement for young people to get involved in the agriculture sector,” Minister Mustapha had said.
In addition to shade houses, some of the other ventures being pursued by the entrepreneurship programme across the country are prawn production and tunnel houses.
President Dr. Irfaan Ali has previously said that one tunnel house, a structure designed to shield poultry from the elements and to maximize production, can produce more than 35,000 chickens.
During a meeting with youths from Region Five (Mahaica/Berbice) on Tuesday, the President explained that, as part of the AIEP, Government would develop five acres of land, whereon youths in the region can then develop their own agriculture businesses. This includes the option of being included in the Onverwagt Prawns Project or another agriculture project.
Further, he said, Government would be collaborating with the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) and with Demerara Bank to offer low interest loans to participants. The intention, according to the Head of State, is to have a group of youths be assigned to a project such as one of the ponds that are home to the prawns. This would reduce the individual overhead and input costs of the youngsters while allowing them to reap the rewards of entrepreneurship.
The President is encouraging persons to come together and pool their resources in order to invest in these businesses. These and other projects form part of Government’s “Vision 25 by 2025”, which was first conceptualized by President Ali and aims for the Caribbean to achieve a 25 per cent reduction in the Region’s food import bill by the year 2025.
Owing to the Region’s dependency on imported foods, it faces hardships when disruptions occur. And in light of this, the intention is to formulate a sense of food stability and security. As of February this year, 70 per cent of the ’25 by 2025’ target had been met. (G3)