Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha receives the equipment and materials from the Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh at the Ministry of Agriculture
“Guyana has been identified in fact to Co-Chair the committee that is addressing food security and the Foreign Secretary is Co-Chairing the committee -The US/CARICOM Food security committee. But apart from the discussions and the work that we are doing to address food security at a macro level, at the national, regional and international level, agriculture and food production go to the core of the well-being of our communities,” the Finance Minister reiterated reminding those at the ceremony that agriculture has historically been the mainstay of Guyana’s economy with tens of thousands of families deriving their economic livelihood from the sector.
Receiving the items on behalf of his Ministry, Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha thanked Dr. Singh and the Ministry of Finance as well as the Basic Needs Trust Fund for bringing into the Ministry of Agriculture the much valuable equipment and materials.
“This will help us to implement the programmes that the Government is rolling out throughout the country and is testimony to the government’s commitment,” Minister Mustapha underscored.
The Caribbean Development Bank’s (CDB) Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF) programme is one of its key instruments for addressing poverty reduction in the Caribbean region. The programme provides access to basic public services through the provision of social and economic infrastructure and the development of skills to enhance employability, community management and engagement. The programme targets the reduced incidence of economic and social vulnerability among the poorest populations in participating countries.
The BNTF programme in Guyana is jointly funded by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the Government of Guyana. BNTF’s Implementing Agency (IA) Guyana began receiving Country Project grants from the Caribbean Development Bank’s Third Programme (BNTF 3) in 1993 and has continued to benefit. For approximately twenty-seven years, the BNTF IA, a Project under the Ministry of Finance, has been implementing projects across the length and breadth of Guyana. The main objective was, and still is, to contribute to poverty-reduction in targeted communities by implementing infrastructure and human capacity development projects. From its inception to date, BNTF Guyana has implemented 612 sub-projects. An estimated 52,283 persons directly benefitted from the projects delivered including 22,355 men and 31,079 women.
The BNTF in Guyana in recent times has made significant contributions to the Agriculture Sector with investments in excess of 380 million dollars. Some of its projects include:
- The Guyana School of Agriculture’s Agro-processing and Training Facility in Region 2, which when operationalized, will expose students to the requirements of commercial food processing operations and the techniques required for the development of new products and demonstrating to students, food processing as a viable business.
- Construction and equipping of a modern agro-processing and packaging facility at NAREI. The facility will be equipped with a pulp processing and tea line, to support value-added agricultural production. Training was also provided to 100 farmers and 20 extension officers in good agricultural practices and post harvesting techniques.
- A small scaled poultry facility within the Matarkai sub-region. The facility will not only help to meet the local poultry demands but also provide jobs for people in the community.
Under the BNTF, 31 shade houses have been constructed in partnership with community farming groups, NGOs and schools in regions 1,2,3,4,5,6,9 and 10. Training was also provided with support from partners IICA and NAREI.
