During a recent outreach to Santa Rosa, a riverine community in the Moruca sub-district in Region One (Barima – Waini), Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha disclosed that livestock farmers will benefit from additional stock to expand swine rearing in the community. He said this would be done via assistance from the Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA).
“There are only a few of you but we will assist with expanding your operations. The GLDA will make additional stock available so that you can expand. Each farmer will be given piglets. When those piglets grow and have droppings, those who benefited from the initial stock will have to share with the other farmers who are interested so that they too can get involved in swine production,” the minister explained.
The official also said that technical officers from the GLDA will be visiting the area more regularly while the agency works to have a full-time veterinarian stationed to service the communities.
With the growing demand locally for special cuts of meat and CARICOM’s goal of reducing the regional food import bill by 25% by 2025, Minister Mustapha said that the government had embarked on a number of projects geared at expanding the livestock sector.
In addition to swine, poultry farmers in the village will also benefit from 25 Black Giant chickens to push their production capacity.
Meanwhile, farmers from Waramuri Village who are having issues with crops were also assured that they too would benefit from assistance.
One farmer present at the meeting said villagers would usually purchase vegetables from the market at Charity because the vegetables grown in the village were not appealing. He explained that some vegetables remained small while others would wither and that villagers were not satisfied with the quality.
Minister Mustapha told the farmers that technical officers from the National Agriculture Research and Extension Institute (NAREI), would be returning to the village to meet with farmers to give technical advice in this regard.
He further stated that farmers are now being encouraged to consolidate and expand their cultivation. To this end, the minister said that the ministry through the NAREI, in addition to the necessary skills training, will provide farmers with planting materials free of cost.
