With 10,500 acres of land to open up in Reg. 5, Mustapha urges farmers to desist from subletting farmlands

Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha is urging Region Five farmers to desist from subletting as he reiterated the Government of Guyana’s plan to acquire some 10,500 acres of farmlands in the region.

The minister was at the time addressing farmers’ concerns at an outreach when he reminded the farmers that subletting is an illegal practice. As such, Minister Mustapha said he has advised the board of the Mahaica/Mahaicony/Abary-Agricultural Development Authority (MMA/ADA) to look into the matter.

“There are land matters and I am trying to see how we can look at revamping the system. There are a number of people who have leases [with the MMA/ADA] and they are subletting the land and when they end up in problems, they come to the MMA,” Minister Mustapha disclosed.

Importantly, the minister reminded that the rental of the lands were reduced from $5,000 to $3,500 per acre of land. This was to ensure that the cost of production would not be increased due to the exorbitant fees. Therefore, farmers are encouraged to reach out directly to the MMA/ADA.

“I made the point that there are a number of farmers who normally try to get these lands to plant and because of that they are increasing the rent and that is causing the cost of production to go up,” he explained.

The minister previously disclosed that some 105,000 acres are available to farmers for rice production in the Mahaica Mahaicony Abary (MMA) scheme. This is expected to advance the nation’s rice production significantly.

“We will open up new lands so that those famers who don’t own lands, also, we will be looking at them to ensure that they get lands…I asked the board to come up with some recommendations which I will be looking at and then we will make some decisions on the matter,” Minister Mustapha said.

In addition to the agricultural development slated for the region, a new water treatment plant will be established soon to benefit approximately 17,000 residents in the region.

There is also a massive housing development ongoing across the country and already, households occupying a government reserve at Bath have been relocated to developed housing schemes.