Region 6 farmers, agro-processors benefit from training workshop

The Agriculture Ministry and the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) have collaborated to conduct a series of awareness and training workshops focusing on farmers, especially women and youth.
The partnership was birthed following a meeting in September between the Agriculture Sub-Committee of the GCCI and the Agriculture Ministry. During the forum, the two explored ways in which the Ministry and the private sector can collaborate during Agriculture Month 2022.
Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha said that the initiative must continue beyond Agriculture Month and spread out to the various farming communities in the country.
Consequently, a team comprised of both private sector organisations and semi-autonomous agencies entered into a collaborative partnership to deliver awareness and training programmes to farmers, with support from the Ministry and its agencies.

“Stakeholder businesses include the Inter-American Institute for Corporation on Agriculture (IICA), Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI), Guyana Food Safety Authority (GFSA), Institute of Private Enterprise Development (IPED), Small Business Bureau (SBB), World University Service of Canada (WUSC), and Empower Guyana,” a statement from the GCCI on Friday explained.
The initiative has been launched in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) and four sessions have been held, focusing on four key areas to help farmers, women, and youth build their capacity by encouraging them to use climate-smart technology such as the use of micronutrients to boost production, improve yield and the quality of their products which ultimately leads to improved income.
Farmers were also urged to treat agriculture as a business so that they can produce to sell rather than selling what they produce as this will help them to access local and eventually overseas markets. Information on access to financing, business function, good agricultural practices, understanding and honouring contractual obligations, and access to incubator services were also presented to producers in Albion, East Bank Berbice, Black Bush Polder, and Crab Wood Creek.
The GCCI’s Agriculture Sub-Committee has tremendously thanked the Ministry of Agriculture and its agencies, including the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI), Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC), and the Guyana Food Safety Authority (GFSA) for their unwavering support.
The committee has also extended special thanks to the extension officers from both NAREI and GMC who were instrumental in making the regional sessions a success by ensuring that farmers were invited and all logistics for the events were in place.
According to the GCCI, it recognises that agriculture is one of the most important productive sectors in Guyana’s economy.
In this regard, the private sector body has applauded the concrete actions taken by its Agriculture Sub-Committee to address the challenges facing farmers generally and especially women and youth.
Moreover, it has encouraged them to prepare themselves to access overseas markets and contribute to President Dr Irfaan Ali’s vision of reducing the Caribbean Community’s (Caricom) food import bill by 25 per cent by 2025.
The first round of workshops in Region Six reached 115 farmers and agro-processors. The awareness and training workshops will be expanded to Regions Two, Three, Four, Five, and 10, and the GCCI said it looks forward to the continued support from the Ministry of Agriculture and participating partners.