Some 6,000 farmers from across the coast are set to benefit from US$3 million worth of inputs and technical assistance as part of the government’s efforts to boost Guyana’s agriculture sector.
According to the ministry, this financial assistance will be made possible through the provision of specialized extension services, critical machinery, and planting materials that were procured through funding from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) under the Ministry of Agriculture’s Agriculture Sector Development Unit’s (ASDU) Sustainable Agriculture Development Programme (SADP) project.
Component Two of the programme targets farmers from regions Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, and Ten who will receive inputs such as land tilers, water pumps, drip systems, shadehouse materials, threshing machines, plucking machines, gestation crates, breeding animals (Cattle, swine, small ruminants, black giants), planting materials, etc. to improve their operations and increase productivity.
The programme will also see farmers benefiting from technical support in areas such as best practices for both plant and animal husbandry as well as technological integration in agriculture.
During a simple handing-over exercise at the ministry’s head office on Friday, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha said the inputs will assist with the government’s efforts to assist small and medium-scale farmers with advancing their agricultural practices. He also said that the government was also working to ensure farmers are exposed to improved technology given the impacts of climate change on the agriculture sector.
The minister said government will continue to support the nation’s farmers and also encouraged the use of inputs such as shadehouses to complement climate-smart agricultural practices.
