Guyana is preparing to ship the first tranche of 15 prefabricated shade houses to Barbados, as part of plans to improve the agriculture sector in that country.
The announcement was made by Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali, during his recent visit to the country, where he participated in the 18th National Agricultural Exhibition (Agro Fest).
As part of the arrangement, 75 houses will be shipped to the island, 50 of which will be purchased by the Barbadian Government, while the remaining 25 will be donated by Guyana.
The houses will be assembled by Barbadian youths who are currently being trained in Guyana in shade house management and development.
“…they will be returning here to build shade houses and to manage shade houses and participate in the agriculture process,” President Ali stated.
Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha, who accompanied the Head of State to the event, said the initiative is part of an agreement between the two states.
“We are making it prefab so that when the hurricane season and so come, it will loose easily, and not be destroyed by the hurricane and then it can easily be reassembled,” the minister said.
According to Minister Mustapha, the ministry will send technical staff to assist in the assembling of the first set of shade houses.
The initiative is one of the bilateral agreements between Guyana and Barbados, as the two countries accelerate agriculture production and achieve food security.
Already, seven acres of land have been identified in Barbados for the establishment of the Guyana/ Barbados food terminal. Once completed, the facility will accommodate 45 food containers, a cold storage facility and processing and packaging plants. (Extracted and modified from the Department of Pubic Information)
