Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha on Monday met with farmers and residents of Mocha Arcadia, East Bank Demerara as a follow-up to a commitment made last Saturday, to address agriculture-related concerns.
The farmers expressed drainage concerns, noting that the heavy rainfall over the past weeks has exacerbated the situation. To this end, Minister Mustapha committed to deploying a team to assess the situation and coordinate interventions.
“The residents are saying that some of the housing development that is taking place is causing some of the back-ups. So, our engineers will be visiting all the areas to see what we have to do to reduce flooding,” he explained.
The minister emphasised the need for immediate interventions, noting that by the end of the week, systems should be in place to address the issue.
“We are trying to see what mechanisms and what measures can be put in place here, so by this afternoon I should receive a report from the NDIA to implement a system to see how we can manage it,” he said.
The agriculture minister related that the Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA) is also seeking to put measures in place to facilitate compensation for farmers who were severely affected by the flooding.
“Our livestock officers and the crop officers are looking to see some of the damage. They are looking to see what the residents have lost, and to see how we can help them as quickly as possible with planting materials and things like that.”
The minister was accompanied by Chairman of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), Lionel Wordsworth, representatives from the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI), GLDA and the Ministry of Housing and Water. (Department of Public Information)
