Agriculture Ministry to embark on test cultivation of corn and peas

TIMES INT'L

Most of the corn and peas in Guyana are imported from the Central American country of Belize, and, in an effort to reduce the food importation bill on these two products, the Agriculture Ministry is moving to grow them, Agriculture Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy has disclosed.

Agriculture Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy
Agriculture Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy

Dr Ramsammy said his ministry is working anxiously on this plan, which will see the crops being test grown, in small quantities and later following successful testing, introduced to local farmers for cultivation.
“I believe that we should not be importing black eye peas and corn, I believe that Guyana should be an important producer of black eye peas and corn… these are crops that Guyanese farmers can grow, so I have instructed the Guyana School of Agriculture (GSA) to use its land in Essequibo, and to plant 10 acres of black eye peas just to demonstrate it can be grown in Guyana,” the Government Information Agency (GINA) quoted the minister as saying.
Similarly, the minister said he also instructed the National Agriculture Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) to work with the GSA and utilise 10 acres of land at Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara and cultivate corn to demonstrate to farmers that it can be grown locally.
With the Barbadian company Santa Fe in Region Nine growing corn and with the ministry now getting onboard, Minister Ramsammy said, “We are hoping that some of the farmers will take this on, so if not eliminating importation of those products, that we can in fact reduce their importation.”

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