There has been an initiative launched by the Government of Guyana and several Private Sector companies – the owners of Guyana Stockfeeds Inc., Royal Chicken, Edun Farms, SBM Wood, Dubulay Ranch, and Bounty Farm Ltd., along with the Brazilian-owned New Frontier Agriculture – to form a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) to produce soya and corn in our Intermediate Savannahs. The Government would be providing “infrastructural development” for the project, and has already budgeted some $500 million for it.
The Guyana savannahs are little known to most Guyanese who live on our coastlands, but they have captivated the imagination of all governments since independence as one of our untapped frontiers. Savannahs are the tropical equivalent of the temperate zone prairies of North America and the steppes of Eurasia – vast flat or undulating grasslands. More precisely, they have been defined as “a mixed woodland-grassland ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to support an unbroken herbaceous layer consisting primarily of grasses.”
We have two sets of savannahs in Guyana. First are the “Intermediate Savannahs” in Region 10, which cover approximately 2000 square miles or 5,000,000 hectares. They consist of 70 per cent forest and 25 per cent savannah lands, and comprise five discrete areas: the Kimbia/Ebini Savannah (east of the Berbice River); the Wiruni Savannah (west of the Berbice River); the Ituni/Tacama Savannah (west of the Berbice River); the Kibilibiri Savannah (west of the Berbice River) and the Eberoabo Savannah (west of the Berbice River). The second set of savannahs are found in the Rupununi (North and South) and are much larger at 6000 square miles. These are vast expanses of land into which each of the Caricom islands would easily fit.
Directly after Independence, the PNC Administration attempted to open up the Intermediate Savannahs for cultivation. The first effort was the Global Agri Kibilibiri grain project, which embarked on large- scale production of maize, sorghum, soyabean and black-eye pea. Approximately 1400 acres were put under cultivation, during which time ownership and management of the project was derogated to the state-owned Guyana Agricultural Products Corporation, which continued farming until 1978 and then collapsed. By then the Government had moved on with a combination of state effort through the creation of the Guyana National Service (GNS) in 1974, and later private enterprise. The Dubulay Ranch, part of the present consortium, was founded back in 1976 as a private venture.
As one analyst reported, “The initial production efforts at Kibilibiri were impressive enough to convince sister Caricom States of Trinidad and St. Kitts to join Guyana, around 1976, in the initiation of a separate project – The Caricom Corn and Soyabean Project – which had financial backing from regional and international funding sources. The 800ha (2000 acre) project was set in the undulating landscape of the neighbouring Eberoabo Savannahs. A similar crop mix as for Kibilibiri was adopted, with pigeon peas included. While Caricom Corn Soya was attempting to gain momentum, the Guyana National Service embarked on cotton and blackeye peas production in the western savannahs at Kimbia. Hence, within a time span of five years, three large savannah projects were initiated where none existed before. All were under state control, with significant bureaucratic management.” All failed.
Since then, there have been regular attempts in every decade to create a sustainable model for agricultural development of the savannahs, to make Guyana into the “Breadbasket of the Caribbean”, to no avail. But the dream persists, perhaps inspired by the success of Brazil and Colombia in creating successful mega- farms for soya and corn and other crops in similar ecosystems. These countries have been able to stimulate this level of agricultural development through a combination of entrepreneurial initiative and State support programmes on infrastructure, satellite-farming arrangements, farming incentives, and input subsidies.
Maybe at long last we will find the right combination. There has been an initiative launched by the Government of Guyana and several Private Sector companies – the owners of Guyana Stockfeeds Inc., Royal Chicken, Edun Farms, SBM Wood, Dubulay Ranch, and Bounty Farm Ltd., along with the Brazilian-owned New Frontier Agriculture – to form a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) to produce soya and corn in our Intermediate Savannahs. The Government would be providing “infrastructural development” for the project, and has already budgeted some $500 million for it.
The Guyana savannahs are little known to most Guyanese who live on our coastlands, but they have captivated the imagination of all governments since independence as one of our untapped frontiers. Savannahs are the tropical equivalent of the temperate zone prairies of North America and the steppes of Eurasia – vast flat or undulating grasslands. More precisely, they have been defined as “a mixed woodland-grassland ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to support an unbroken herbaceous layer consisting primarily of grasses.”
We have two sets of savannahs in Guyana. First are the “Intermediate Savannahs” in Region 10, which cover approximately 2000 square miles or 5,000,000 hectares. They consist of 70 per cent forest and 25 per cent savannah lands, and comprise five discrete areas: the Kimbia/Ebini Savannah (east of the Berbice River); the Wiruni Savannah (west of the Berbice River); the Ituni/Tacama Savannah (west of the Berbice River); the Kibilibiri Savannah (west of the Berbice River) and the Eberoabo Savannah (west of the Berbice River). The second set of savannahs are found in the Rupununi (North and South) and are much larger at 6000 square miles. These are vast expanses of land into which each of the Caricom islands would easily fit.
Directly after Independence, the PNC Administration attempted to open up the Intermediate Savannahs for cultivation. The first effort was the Global Agri Kibilibiri grain project, which embarked on large- scale production of maize, sorghum, soyabean and black-eye pea. Approximately 1400 acres were put under cultivation, during which time ownership and management of the project was derogated to the state-owned Guyana Agricultural Products Corporation, which continued farming until 1978 and then collapsed. By then the Government had moved on with a combination of state effort through the creation of the Guyana National Service (GNS) in 1974, and later private enterprise. The Dubulay Ranch, part of the present consortium, was founded back in 1976 as a private venture.
As one analyst reported, “The initial production efforts at Kibilibiri were impressive enough to convince sister Caricom States of Trinidad and St. Kitts to join Guyana, around 1976, in the initiation of a separate project – The Caricom Corn and Soyabean Project – which had financial backing from regional and international funding sources. The 800ha (2000 acre) project was set in the undulating landscape of the neighbouring Eberoabo Savannahs. A similar crop mix as for Kibilibiri was adopted, with pigeon peas included. While Caricom Corn Soya was attempting to gain momentum, the Guyana National Service embarked on cotton and blackeye peas production in the western savannahs at Kimbia. Hence, within a time span of five years, three large savannah projects were initiated where none existed before. All were under state control, with significant bureaucratic management.” All failed.
Since then, there have been regular attempts in every decade to create a sustainable model for agricultural development of the savannahs, to make Guyana into the “Breadbasket of the Caribbean”, to no avail. But the dream persists, perhaps inspired by the success of Brazil and Colombia in creating successful mega- farms for soya and corn and other crops in similar ecosystems. These countries have been able to stimulate this level of agricultural development through a combination of entrepreneurial initiative and State support programmes on infrastructure, satellite-farming arrangements, farming incentives, and input subsidies.
Maybe at long last we will find the right combination.
