Access road to intermediate savannahs being built
As part of improving access to the intermediate savannahs, government will commence construction of an access road from Wire Bridge to Tacama, Berbice a press release from the Ministry of Agriculture said on Friday. Land clearing in preparation for the project will commence this week.
Agriculture Minister Noel Holder, on Friday led a team on an outreach exercise to Ebini, East Bank Berbice where he had a firsthand look at the progress being made thus far. Holder said that the funds are now being made available through a loan agreement from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) as part of the Sustainable Agriculture Development Programme (SADP).
The National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) has been carrying out successful pilot plots which consist of 10 acres of mixed fruits (mangoes, guava, avocadoes, golden apples and citrus), the release said.
According to Chief Executive Officer, NAREI, Oudho Homenauth such efforts by the Institute augur well for reducing the costs and resources attached to conducting required feasibility studies.
“This type of work is necessary and something NAREI gives priority to (to) bring much needed support to investors. The Intermediate Savannahs remain a lucrative area for development and has received substantial interest by investors.” he said.
The release said that the Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA) is also heavily involved in the vision on agricultural development for the savannahs. Currently, the authority has approximately 512 head of top pure bred cattle grazing.
Chief Executive Officer of GLDA, Nigel Cumberbatch said that at the rate the herd is progressing, the authority is optimistic that it will grow to 2000 head of cattle over the next two years.