The Government of Guyana through the Ministry of Agriculture has been working assiduously to promote youth involvement in the agriculture sector. Towards this end, over $20M has been expended on various initiatives to promote agriculture in schools.
Over the past 15 months, the ministry’s National Agriculture Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) in collaboration with the Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF) has constructed 24 shadehouses in schools across Regions Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, and Seven.
While speaking on this initiative, Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha was keen to note that Guyana is now leading the agriculture agenda in CARICOM as countries in the region work to lower the food import bill by 25 percent by the year 2025. For this to be accomplished, he said more youths have to get involved in the sector.
“We know we have to get our youths involved in agriculture to ensure longevity, sustainability, and food security. We have to build that interest and show how exciting agriculture is by establishing a solid foundation while they are in school. This is why we’ve been working to develop the Agriculture Science departments in secondary schools across the country,” the minister said.
He added, “To date, we’ve worked with several secondary schools to construct shade houses to assist students who are doing SBAs for CSEC. We also built one at the University of Guyana’s Tain Campus. We did 14 last year and already for 2023, we’ve completed an additional 10.”
He further stated that in addition to the shade houses, many schools were also given technical assistance, seeds, seedlings, and tools to complement their crop science efforts while some received ducklings and chicks with feed to assist with the livestock aspect.
In 2022, NAREI expended some $10,690,000 to construct shade houses and outfit them with planting materials, irrigation systems, and tools while to date for 2023, some $20,870,000 has been spent on the initiative.
Some of the schools that benefited from the initiative were 8th of May Secondary School and Cottonfield Secondary School (Region Two),Leguan Secondary School and West Demerara Secondary School (Region Three), Cummings Lodge Secondary School (Region Four), Woodley Park Secondary School (Region Five), New Amsterdam Multilateral School (Region Six), and St Michael School (Region Seven).
Of the 15 shadehouses erected in 2022, seven were constructed through funding from the BNTF.
The Agriculture and Innovation Entrepreneurship Programme which was conceptualized by President, Dr. Irfaan Ali was one of the first initiatives launched by the government to promote youth involvement in agriculture.
Sighting the fact that many young persons who are qualified to work in the sector are operating from offices, the Head of State developed the programme which targets graduates from both the Guyana School of Agriculture as well as the University of Guyana.
To date, approximately 100 persons are a part of the programme and have earned over $10 million from the sale of high-value crops such as broccoli and cauliflower.
