“We want all of you, like Guyana, to rise together” – Pres Ali to Susannah’s Rust, Dora residents

…communities to become major producers of pepper & honey

The communities of Susannah’s Rust and Dora in the Demerara River, off the Linden/Soesdyke Highway, will soon become major producers of peppers and honey as the Guyana Government moves to develop acres of fertile land currently untapped.
This commitment was made by President Dr Irfaan Ali during meetings with residents of the villages on Saturday.
Susannah’s Rust holds a population of approximately 120 villagers while Dora has some 200 residents who farms and sell their produce to local markets.
During his visits to the Demerara River communities over the weekend, Ali underscored the need to expand agriculture, specifically the production of bull nose and tiger teeth peppers as well as honey, which he noted Guyana has a ready market for and has proven to be lucrative industries.
Recently, the Head of State announced plans to establish a national honey bank to enhance the efficiency and quality of honey production, while maximising the country’s economic potential.

He explained that both Susannah’s Rust and Dora will play a major role in Guyana reaching its full potential, and to ensure this, government will commence work for the clearing of lands soon.
Each farmer in the respective areas will identify two acres of their land for this initiative, and agricultural inputs such as planting materials and seedlings will be provided to them, as well as technical support.
“We are making the investment because we believe in the potential of your community, we believe in the potential of all of you, we care about all of you and we want all of you, like Guyana to rise together. We want to invest so that we can give you the best opportunity possible, so that we can create avenues through which we can better serve you,” President Ali said.
According to President Ali, the Guyana government sees an opportunity to utilise land, and encouraged residents, like those in other Demerara River communities, to set up shade houses to tap into viable markets and increase their disposable income.

He said that government will assist with the capital investment and training to ensure that these ventures take off in the community
“We are ready to train the women in your community in beekeeping, we are ready to invest the safety equipment for those women, invest in the hives, and build an industry around beekeeping in this river and other riverine communities,” the Guyanese Leader underscored.
Further, to ease their transportation woes, President Ali said that the government will look into procuring cargo boats.
“We are already discussing the possibilities of maybe investing in two cargo boats for the Demerara River so we can help the small and medium size persons to take their produce to the market, take it more to agro-processing but these are the things that we are thinking about,” he added.

Agriculture budget
The total of $97.6 billion allocated through the National Budget for agricultural development in Guyana, and a huge part of that allocation will be spent on drainage, irrigation and food production as government moves to achieve Vision 25 by 25.
Out of that allocation, $1.3 billion goes to the rice sub-sector, $78 million to the coconut sub-sector, $2.6 billion to advance the production of other crops including high-value produce like cauliflower, peppers and lettuce, and $967.8 million, to further develop the Tacama facility where corn and soya is being produced.
Additionally, government will continue to support the agro-processing industry through training for farmers, providing storage facilities and expanding market opportunities.
In this regard, $527.4 million was allocated for agro-processing purposes while $1.2 billion was allocated for aquaculture and fisheries. (G1)