Aimed at creating a self-sustaining food supply within the prison system, the Guyana Prison Service (GPS), through its agricultural programme, has harvested a quantity of vegetables and fruits at its respective farms recently.
Inmates with the produce reaped under the GFS agricultural project
A quantity of eschalot, cauliflowers, pineapples, bananas, and plantains were harvested by inmates after the Prison Service dived into the agriculture sector.
Director of Prisons, Nicklon Elliot, expressed that the programme’s strategic goal is to maximise yields through the service’s investment in large-scale farming for the prison industry.
Meanwhile, Elliot disclosed that farming for the first half of the year has been productive, and has resulted in the GPS reaping 2,085kg of eggplant, 979kg of bora, 1463kg of pak-choy, 591kg of pumpkin, 304kg of papaya, 590kg of passion fruit, and 236kg of cherries. In the poultry sector, some 9,831kg of chicken and 941 trays of eggs were produced.
Inmates with the produce reaped under the GFS agricultural project
The recent efforts are focused on ensuring that farms are utilised to sufficiently supply the needs of the prison population in the coming years. Over 60 inmates are currently being trained in agricultural production.
Farming has been undertaken at the New Amsterdam, Mazaruni, Lusignan and Timehri penitentiaries, with the efforts geared at sustainably supplying the prison populations with produce and poultry supplies.
The Ali-led administration has been pushing its agriculture agenda not just locally, but regionally. Last year, President Irfaan Ali declared that his Government would be pursuing an aggressive campaign to dismantle regional barriers to agricultural trade, and that in the next four years, with the assistance of more diversified crops, Guyana would aim to reduce Caricom’s food import bill by 25 per cent.
