GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – Guyanese farmers are set to benefit from specialized technical assistance under a $5.3 million Caribbean Agricultural Productivity Improvement Activity (CAPA) project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
During a meeting on Friday, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha met with a team from the agency to discuss priority areas, adding that over the past three years, moves to assist farmers and the outcomes have indicated that Guyana and the Caribbean are moving in the right direction.
Mustapha also spoke about Guyana’s plan to commence construction of a food terminal before the end of 2023 as the government gears up to make Guyana a regional food distributor.
“We have a lot of room to collaborate, and I know USAID has been a valuable partner over the years. We are seeing many positive results from what we started when we took office in 2020. Those results are promising for us in terms of food security. We are on the verge of starting our food terminal so that we can be a food distributor for the Caribbean. I have the technical people working, and we are looking to get that project started before the year is out because we already have a lot in place. So, overall, I think we are moving in the right direction in the Caribbean regarding the 25 by 2025 Initiative,” he explained.
Program Director for IESC’s USAID Caribbean Agricultural Productivity Improvement Activity (CAPA), Sandiford Edwards, informed Mustapha that the upcoming program cycle for USAID’s CAPA will commence sometime in January.
He also said that they could identify three target commodities for support through consultations with agencies like the National Agriculture Research and Extension Institute (NAREI), the local Private Sector, and farmers.
“We have identified three value chains in terms of support for Guyana. Turmeric is one as the government has invested in a significant plant in Region One. So, in discussion, we agreed that turmeric is an area where we will provide some support in working with the farmers. We’ve also listed coconuts, recognizing that this is Guyana’s third most exported produce.
We’ve also looked at cherries and how we can work with farmers to access resources. We met with some of the large producers, and there needs to be more supply where we can support farmers to expand production. We are in deep discussion with the GBTI to look at the staff capacity building in agricultural lending to see how we can help them with specialized agriculture loan products. The project will also work with input suppliers,” he explained.
Mustapha said that the government is now repositioning and revitalizing the spices sector and has since designated Region One as the spices region of the country.
“We’ve started a lot of work to develop our spice industry. Region One was designated the spice region of the country. The farmers are expected to reap about a million pounds of ginger for this crop. We started the cultivation of other spices like black pepper and nutmeg, and we’ll continue to expand. Minister Mustapha added that we’ve also built processing facilities in Region One, in the three sub-deities to support these industries,” Minister Mustapha added.
Earlier this week, the Regional Representative of USAID in the Eastern and Southern Caribbean, Mervyn Farroe, disclosed that the program is currently in the design phase in Guyana. He also said the new farmer-to-farmer program is a five-year initiative starting this year.
“Farmer-to-farmer sends US-based volunteers on technical assignments and
these volunteers have technical skills to provide hands-on training to communities, cooperatives, agri-businesses, and educational institutions,” he said.
The USAID Director for the Eastern and Southern Caribbean highlighted that CAPA is one of the aid agency’s key collaborations with CARICOM that emerged from the 9th Summit of the Americas.
He noted that USAID had responded to Guyana’s mission to ensure food security in the Caribbean by crafting the CAPA project, which has three interconnected objectives to generate a tangible positive impact for smallholder farmers, enterprises, and consumers across the region.
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