Farmers receive swine from Agri ministry to increase pork production

Efforts to increase Guyana’s pork production continue with the Ministry of Agriculture donating 20 swine to farmers with the intention of creating better breeding of the animals.

The brief handing-over ceremony was held at the Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA) at Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara.

Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha, while giving the key address, said the country is leading the Caribbean in the Agriculture sector and the government is making efforts like this to ensure that Guyana continues its goal of increasing food production here.

“We know for a fact that we are continuously working to develop the poultry industry, we want to be a net exporter. We want to increase swine production. We want to increase and develop cattle, beef and dairy production, we want to develop the small ruminants production but we cannot do it and we cannot be a net exporter if we continue to import the basic ingredients.

“We are seeing now a renewed interest in this agriculture sector. We are seeing more demand for people to get into the Agriculture sector. Why? Because of the programme we have started and the works we are doing amongst the farmers and population. Now people are seeing the importance of agriculture, the importance of producing food and the importance of food security. We can have all the money in the world if we don’t have food then we’ll starve,” the Agriculture Minister said.

Meanwhile, the GLDA’s Chairman of the Board of Directors Madanlall Ramraj said the swine production target this year is 4,200. He said it is expected that this target will be met.

“We have a target of 4,200 swallows to be produced by the end of 2022. To date, we are over 3,000 and we hope, long before the end of the year we’ll complete that target,” Ramraj said.

The country representative at the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Wilmot Garnet reminded farmers that although the government has made interventions for the sector, it is still a costly industry. He suggested that farmers cooperate with the government to continue these developments.

Mark Alleyne, a farmer, said this is a great initiative and one he has been waiting for. Another farmer, Romel Datadeen said, “it will benefit me and help increase the pork production.”