No ‘blind investments’ as enumerators commence training to survey agri sector

Employees of the Agriculture Ministry commenced training on Friday to become enumerators who will later carry out surveys to acquire information relating to the productivity and requirements of the sector.

The $25 million project is funded by the Inter-Development Bank’s (IDB) Sustainable Development Programme.

The enumerators from Regions Two, Three, Four, Five and Six commenced training at the Regency Suites’ Boardroom, Hadfield Street, Georgetown on Friday shortly after the project was launched.

According to the Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha, following this training and the survey sessions that will follow, a number of farmers in the country will be registered through this pilot project.

It is his hope that in the coming years many more will be registered.

“Also it will help us to register farmers because over the last two years we have seen a number of initiatives by the government that targeted farmers, we were unable to capture all the farmers that were involved in the activity.”

He said the project is long overdue because the ministry has not conducted such surveys in several years.

“We are launching this project not only to do a survey but also to help us to register those farmers so we will now have knowledge of what they are producing, how they are doing, and set programmes,” the minister said.

He noted that without engaging the farmers and knowing what products the farmers have, the ministry will be blindly investing in the sector. Therefore the objective of developing the sector will not be met.

“Without proper analysis and proper knowledge and survey I don’t think we can set a realistic programme.

“This is the beginning of one, a survey to know what farmers are producing, what amount they are producing, so that when we set our objective in terms of programmes. We will know how to do it, how to disburse the funds in various regions and then we will know what programmes to set,” he explained.

“These are very critical information for us,” Mustapha added.

“It is an agriculture survey which will bolster the country’s advancement into becoming the food capital of the Caribbean,” Mustapha further said.

Meanwhile, Lorena Solozario, the Acting Country Representative for the IDB said, “This activity marks an important undertaking for Guyana and for the agriculture sector.

“This is important because we need the information of where we are in the agriculture sector… It’s a milestone for the sector to start this survey aligned with our IDB mission 2025, along with the agenda for promoting actions and knowledge in climate change and maximizing the growth production and fostering investments.”

She added that the survey will help with establishing best practices and increase the productivity of the sector “because a transparent understanding of farmers’ needs, capacity and production will be made available.”

Tablets, laptops, long boots, and other items will enable the enumerators to conduct the training and surveys were handed over.