Latest update April 28th, 2024 1:33 AM
Dec 31, 2023 News
Kaieteur News – Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha was pleased to announce yesterday that a number of outstanding achievements were recorded by the sector in 2023.
Starting with the sugar industry, he noted that there was an investment of $8.1 billion to continue the ministry’s revitalization effort.
The minister said, “I made this point two weeks ago in parliament. We will be seeing less and less dependency (on the Treasury) in terms of bringing back the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) to the where we want it.
“In this regard, we have actually seen a 22 percent decrease of funding we have requested from the government for GuySuCo this year when compared to 2022…”
Even with reduced funding, much was achieved, said Mustapha as he noted that the Rose Hall estate was reopened on September 20, 2023. He said to date production there has totaled 1,031 metric tonnes.
Overall, he said the sugar industry will close 2023 at 60, 204 metric tonnes. He said this is a 28 percent or 13,155 metric tonnes increase when compared to the production of 47,049 metric tonnes in 2022.
The minister said too that 52 percent more land was replanted this year, totaling 4020 hectares compared to 2640 hectares in 2022.
“We have seen a further 54 percent of sugar production was marketed as bagged or packaged sugar in 2023 as compared to 48 percent in 2022. We will continue this aggressively and in the last supplementary we had, I made the point that we are focusing heavily on mechanization across the industry…we will convert over 5000 hectares of land over the next two years so we can facilitate mechanical harvesting and loading,” the minister said.
Mustapha also shared that GuySuCo commenced the construction of the Albion and Blairmont packaging plant to increase the production of value added packaged sugar, adding that, two new packaged brands were launched. They are the Albion Gem and the Demerara Gold Sugar stick sachet.
In terms of employment, he said the sector has seen 4692 new employees since 2020. Kaieteur News understands that the total workforce at the end of 2023 is 8,294.
In 2023, Minister Mustapha said there was a seven percent increase in paddy production which translates to the production of 653,706 metric tonnes. This is 43,111 metric tonne increase in production in 2023 compared to 2022 production of 610,595.
In terms of earnings, Mustapha said the rice sector raked in approximately $45.2 billion. He said this is $3 billion more than 2022.
Minister Mustapha said, “We have new markets in different parts of the world and due to the efforts of our robust research team, we are working on the renovation of our plant breeding labs at the Burma Rice Research Station. We are hoping to do more research so we can bring out more high yielding varieties.”
The minister was also pleased to share that his ministry has ensured eight drying floors have been constructed across the country. In this respect he said the Black Bush Seed Processing Facility has started operations. “That was down for a number of years and that will produce close to about 6000 bags of paddy for approximately 600 farmers,” the minister said.
Over the next few years, he said works will continue on the expansion of these types of facilities across the country.
Minister Mustapha was keen to note that drainage and irrigation saw significant advancements including the works on the construction of 17 pump stations across the country. He was also pleased to share that Region 10 was able to get its first conservancy which is now supporting the production targets many farmers have their eyes on for 2024.
In terms of equipment, Mustapha said the Mahaica Mahaicony Abary – Agricultural Development Authority (MMA/ADA) which had three dilapidated excavators have upgraded its feel to six functioning ones.
At the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), he said, “We have a pontoon with two excavators in the Pomeroon and we are now building another pontoon with two more excavators. We also have cutter edge dredges which are capable of going into the banks of the outfalls because we have tremendous siltation across the country and we are hoping to have this resolved.”
He added, “We also have long reach, medium reach and mini-excavators being procured by NDIA. We want to increase that fleet and make it more effective for the rainy season.”
In another two weeks, Minister Mustapha said works will begin on the construction of the canals in Regions Six and Five which are similar to the Hope Canal, located in Guyana’s Demerara-Mahaica region.
Minister Mustapha said, “Before the end of February 2024 you will see works commencing on these mega-structures and a number of other supporting projects like pump stations and sluices…we will have approximately three in Region Six and five in Region Five. I am hoping this will help us in alleviating flooding across the region.”
In Region Five, Minister Mustapha said drainage and irrigation works were done to benefit 28500 acres of land, of which 15,000 acres is new land in the Herstelling, Berbice area.
Turning his attention to the Pomeroon area in Region Two, Minister Mustapha said farmers normally suffer from severe flooding. To address these issues, he said block drainage is being done. “We are also lifting the beds of these cash crop farmers to approximately 1.5 meters so they would not be easily flooded out during high tide or heavy rainfall. Over 550 farmers will benefit from this and $1.87 billion will be expended on this,” the minister said.
In the Hinterland Region, Minister Mustapha said works have increased with $62.1million spent on completing a rainwater harvesting project in Deep South Rupununi where approximately 800 farmers are spread across 20 villages.
The minister said a Hinterland Department was also established with the aim of working very closely with Toshaos across communities. “We are supporting them with planting material and a number of livestock have been distributed. We are now looking to procure machinery for them like excavators and we have already given large tractors to Regions One and Nine to assist with land preparation,” the minister said.
During the 2015 to 2020 period, the minister said a number of farmers’ leases were revoked by the former administration. This was reversed by the current regime as Mustapha said 128 leases were distributed in 2022 and 100 were given out in 2023. “So farmers can use these leases as collateral to get loans from the banking sector to increase production levels,” he said.
Overall, Minister Mustapha said these achievements are a testament that the agriculture sector will remain a critical part of Guyana’s economy and will no doubt aid in the realization of this nation becoming the breadbasket of the region.
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