GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC—The Guyana Economic Development Fund (GEDF) says a natural edible coating invented by a Guyanese food scientist will be supplied to farmers and sellers to help reduce food loss and lower consumer prices.
Scientist Tandika Harry has developed the preservative Beestarch, which will extend the shelf-life of certain types of produce. Guyana’s Food and Drug Department and the United States-based Cornell School of Agriculture have validated the preservative preservative.
The product is being manufactured in the US, and according to Oslene Carrington, the GEDF chief executive officer, it will soon be shipped to Guyana for farmers to use and apply under supervision.
“Through the phenomenal collaboration with USAID (United States Agency for International Development), a funding partner of ours, and the CAPA (Caribbean Agricultural Productivity Improvement Activity) program, we’ll be piloting the large-scale application of the Beestarch product,” said Carrington, who is also CEO of the US-based Guyana Economic Development Trust.
Carrington added that the product would be applied under the supervision of CAPA representatives and Harry “to ensure it is applied as it should be.”
The Guyana Economic Development Trust official said the post-harvest preservative would target cassava but also work on mango, papaya, and pineapple.
“The reason we’re doing this on cassava is because not long ago, Guyana wasn’t producing that much cassava beyond that which we consume,” she said, adding that Guyana was emerging as a large cassava producer to the credit of the Ministry of Agriculture.
Then, a University of Guyana student, Harry, invented a product that could preserve produce for up to 18 days without refrigeration.
Data obtained in 2016 shows that up to 40 percent of produce spoils before it gets to the market, resulting in food losses and higher prices.
Meanwhile, local farmers are getting international help to increase the production of turmeric, with a local company indicating its willingness to purchase all of the supplies.
USAID project management specialist Durwin Humphrey said the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) has “actively collaborated” with Improving Economies for Stronger Communities (IESC) under the CAPA project to establish two turmeric demonstration farms to encourage farmers to adopt modern cultivation practices. “This intervention is intended to promote the commercial product of turmeric for further processing to meet the local market’s needs,” he said.
Humphrey said Edward B. Beharry Company Limited is willing to “expand purchases,” providing satisfactory quality and competitive prices.
“Unless we have the private sector on board and the private sector taking ownership, I believe that our efforts in terms of agriculture transformation may not be sustained,” he said at the signing of memoranda of understanding between USAID-CAPA, NAREI and the Economic Development Fund Inc. (EDF).
NAREI, with support from CAPA, has been providing extension support to cherry farmers at Laluni, Soesdyke-Linden Highway.
CAPA program director Sandiford Edwards said his organization—which covers Guyana, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago—has already formulated manuals for farm-based training to match production with marketing, market briefs, and 12 demonstration farms across the region.
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