Gov’t to resuscitate coffee industry, develop agri. sector in Indigenous communities

Families in the Indigenous community of Wakapau in Region Two have been growing coffee plants and supplying some local producers. But Wakapau’s Toshao, Lloyd Pereira, says the community wants to expand production.

Pereira told the News Room that the village is home to about 2,000 people. They mostly engage in household coffee production and supply some local coffee producers.

But the community is now keenly interested in expanding coffee production, making it a potentially lucrative venture for residents.

So Toshao Pereira, who is in Georgetown this week for the National Toshaos Council (NTC) conference, asked Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha for support in this venture on Wednesday.

In response, Mustapha said the government is actually resuscitating the entire coffee industry and Wakapau will be involved in those plans.

“We are working with IICA (the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture) now, we are resuscitating that entire industry,” Mustapha said.

Days before, at the conference’s opening ceremony on Monday, President Dr. Irfaan Ali told Toshaos that one of his government’s plans is to “reignite and expand” the coffee and cocoa industries in Guyana.

Meanwhile, Mustapha highlighted that efforts to resuscitate Guyana’s coffee industry are just part of a wider plan to develop agriculture in Indigenous communities.

“I want also to do a long term plan with various communities or various regions where you can build nurseries rather than depending on us in Georgetown to take in the plants [seedlings] and materials from neighbouring countries,” he told the Toshaos on Wednesday.