Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Aug 09, 2008 News
There are lands available in the Mahaica/Mahaicony/Abary area for investors who are interested in large-scale aquaculture activities.
Yesterday, Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, said that a number of proposals are being considered for the MMA area. He used the opportunity to encourage more persons to be a part of the sector. Aquaculture is expected to be among the leading sectors within Guyana’s economy by 2015.
Minister Persaud made the land availability announcement during a dedication ceremony of the Mon Repos aquaculture facilities in memory of former Minister of Agriculture, Satyadeow Sawh.
The facility has now been renamed ‘Satyadeow Sawh Aquaculture Station.’
The dedication to Sawh was based on the fact that aquaculture is an area in which the former Agriculture Minister had a direct interest for developing in Guyana.
“We wanted to commission and dedicate a facility that Sash (Satyadeow Sawh) has had a lot of work on…something he was personally or intimately involved in, and the establishment of this facility is a direct result of his vision and confidence that Guyana can develop in the future a very vibrant aquaculture sector,” Minister Persaud said.
Sawh recognised, Persaud said, that if Guyana was going to introduce a fairly new sector, then the country had to promote, propel and create a sector, while at the same time ensuring that the staffers and the farmers are trained.
He pointed out also that these persons must have had at their disposal a facility which they use to see how it is one can do aquaculture to develop it into a successful industry.
“What Sash did during his tenure was to lay the foundation, and we at the Ministry of Agriculture are working with other stakeholders and donors…we have been building on the foundation that has been left by Sash; and in so doing, we have started the expansion of this facility,” Persaud said.
The commissioning of the new tilapia hatchery, which costs $11M, he added, will enable farmers to have access to fingerlings, since the production will increase from 11,000 to 200,000 by the end of the year.
The hatchery will lead to an ‘explosion’ in the aquaculture sector, Persaud added.
“We are committed to ensuring that aquaculture becomes one of the stronger sub-sectors within the sector, and within the agriculture diversification project that is being funded by the IDB.
The intention there is to do the foundation work to develop the commodity value chain for aquaculture,” Minister Persaud said.
In 2001, the Mon Repos Aquaculture Station was established and commissioned by President Bharrat Jagdeo and former Minister Satyadeow Sawh. The station consisted of one residence, one laboratory and ten concrete ponds.
At present, it comprises an additional eight earthen ponds and a new semi-commercial hatchery. Guyana possesses key resource ingredients necessary to support a successful aquaculture industry, Peter Hubbard, Director of USAID, told the gathering yesterday.
This includes fresh water, extensive flat lands, warm climate, irrigation and water infrastructure capability, amidst human resource needed to sustain the aquaculture industry.
Aquaculture will play an important role in Guyana’s diversification efforts in economic development, Hubbard added. The USAID donated the testing and research equipment for the station.
In remembering his father, Roger Sawh, the older of the two sons of the former minister, said that his father believed that aquaculture had somewhere to go in Guyana.
“He really believed that it had somewhere to go, and you seeing it fit to dedicate such an important facility in his name shows that his vision has not gone up with his mortal remains…two years have passed since he left us, but every day he is remembered in some way or the other,” Roger Sawh said.
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, along with a number of Government ministers, was present at the dedication ceremony yesterday.
The Prime Minister used the opportunity to urge a number of business persons, who were present and who are involved in the fisheries sector, to explore their options in aquaculture.
The British High Commission provided the super male tilapias for the hatchery. The aquaculture station is a one-storey concrete building containing two large reproduction tanks.
Thirty-six small concrete ponds for fingerlings are expected to be added to the facility. The new hatchery is estimated to produce more than 200,000 fingerlings per year.
Satyadeow Sawh, along with two of his siblings and his security guard, was gunned down at his LBI, East Coast Demerara home on April 22, 2006.
Several persons have since been charged for the murders, and those cases are still at the preliminary inquiry stage. (Tusika Martin)
Where is the BETTER MANAGEMENT/RENEGOTIATION OF THE OIL CONTRACTS you promised Jagdeo?
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