Regional ferry, food hub initiatives to create more opportunities for farmers – Mustapha

…tissue culture lab among projects in pipeline

The Guyana Government’s rollout of various initiatives such as a regional ferry and a regional food hub are aimed at creating more opportunities for farmers to sell their goods and services at better prices. And according to Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha, more initiatives will be rolled out this year.

Mustapha was at the time addressing farmers at Canal Number Two Polder, West Bank of Demerara (WBD), where he had accompanied President Dr Irfaan Ali to speak with farmers and hear their concerns. He urged farmers to be ready for when opportunities such as the ones the regional ferry will create, come knocking.
“You, the farmers, will have a lot of opportunities to supply your produce to that food hub we’ll be exporting to the Caribbean. Because as you know, with the President’s initiative we’ll have a ferry service that will come in soon, between Guyana, Trinidad and Barbados.”
“So, you’ll have more opportunities to sell your produce. More prices and that’s the way we plan to help farmers add value to your produce. So, a lot of these projects are on stream and this year you’ll see more,” Mustapha explained.
Only recently, CariCargo Incorporated, the company that will be operating the ferry between Guyana, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago in a historic attempt at regional integration, had officially been incorporated in Guyana.
The vessel that will be serving the route can accommodate 400 passengers and 60 cars. Among the facilities onboard are a cafeteria, a bar, and a VIP lounge. In January, Guyana, T&T and Barbados formed a joint company that would work towards the introduction of a ferry system for passengers and cargo between the three countries.

Tissue lab
He also explained the investments the Government is making in the agriculture sector from a budgetary perspective. In particular, he made it clear that the Government remained committed to building a tissue lab, which is a facility that grows new plants from tissue extracted from other, mature plants.
This comes after an agreement was signed between the Government of Guyana through the Agriculture Ministry and The Energy Resource Institute (TERI) of India in 2023 to establish a tissue culture facility.
“So, generally, a lot of investments are being made in the agriculture sector. Also, what we are doing – late last year, the President gave instructions that we should now satisfy the needs of farmers in planting materials. And we’re in the process of building a tissue culture lab so that we can produce millions of planting materials. Concentrate on different types. Who doing citrus, who doing pineapple and other crops.”
“So that we can cater for the farmers. So, the investment is big. This year’s budget, we’re working to execute. Several projects are in this year’s budget. And also, you’ll see more development come your way,” the Minister also said.

MoU
Further mention was made of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that Guyana signed with the Brazilian state of Roraima in 2022, to enhance agriculture through research and development. According to Mustapha, this is being brought to fruition.
“So, in a nutshell, the agriculture sector is moving. And, you know, the President is very passionate about agriculture. Because this year also, we’ve started the construction of a food hub. A food hub where Guyana will be the distribution centre. We’ve already signed an MoU with the state of Roraima. So, we’re working together,” the Minister said.
In 2022, President Ali and Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley had travelled to northern Brazil to meet with officials of the State of Roraima to advance trilateral relations.
The two Heads of State met with the Governor of Roraima, Antonio Denarium, at the Governor’s Palace in Boa Vista. Also in 2022, President Ali had attended a Caribbean-Roraima Investors Luncheon at the Santa Fé farm in North Rupununi.
During that meeting, Brazilian investors representing half of the production capacity of the State of Roraima made presentations on their capacity and capabilities and spoke of their intentions to collaborate with Guyana and the wider Caricom Region in agriculture.
With the State of Roraima, including the business community, expressing a desire to be integrated more into the vision of Caricom, when it comes to the agricultural sector, an MoU was signed with the State of Roraima. (G3)