The Mahaica Mahaicony Abary -Agriculture Development Authority (MMA-ADA) recently commissioned two long-reach excavators and one heavy-duty high-powered tractor to improve in the provision of several services in Region Five. The equipment cost $91M and forms part of the authority’s 2022 capital expenditure.
Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha, during the commissioning ceremony, said the recent investment aligns with the government’s goal of developing the sector and ensuring food security. He said the scheme has the potential to increase production not only in rice and other crops but in livestock too hence the government is working assiduously towards bringing more lands into operation. Minister Mustapha efforts are already afoot to develop cattle pastures at the scheme.
Speaking to the entity’s rice production performance, Minister Mustapha said, “For this year, almost 76,000 acres (of rice) were cultivated, and to date, a total of 1,473,131 bags of paddy were harvested in the MMA Scheme. That is only 59% of the crop so imagine, when harvesting is completed we will have close to two million bags. We are looking to increase the acreage in this scheme because I was told that the scheme has the capacity to plant almost 108,000 acres.”
“We’ve been working to put the necessary systems in place so that this can become a reality. We’ve moved the production of seed paddy in Region Five from 3,000 bags when we took over about 18 months ago to 30,000 bags last year. This year we’ll be expending another $55 million to upgrade and rehabilitate the seed paddy facility and increase production to approximately 60,000 bags. So transformation is underway.”
In addition to the machinery, Minister Mustapha disclosed that the government was working to modernize the scheme’s operations. He shared that a drone to do surveying and mapping of areas in the scheme using a geographic information system (GIS) has been purchased. Mustapha said the drone would be used to identify lands for use as well as to monitor those which are not easily accessible.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture’s website, the MMA/ADA is a semi-autonomous agency and is responsible for the formulation of policies for the efficient functioning and operations of Region Five (Mahaica/Berbice).
It is the executing agency for the construction of all drainage and irrigation works in Region Five and is also responsible for the allocation of State Lands between the Berbice and Mahaica Rivers.
Overall, MMA/ADA supports nearly half of the nation’s rice production, about 30-35% of all livestock (most cattle) production and 10-15% of national sugar production.
