Cuba to help Guyana develop honey sector

CMC -The Guyana government Friday said that four Cuban specialists will assist indigenous communities develop and expand honey production.

President Dr. Irfaan Ali told the final day of the annual National Toshaos Conference that his administration has offered to train 150 people from the indigenous communities in the areas of agriculture and food security.

“We have just yesterday agreed to invest in four specialists from Cuba who will come to Guyana, to work with you in the communities in building out the honey industry and expanding the industry and we want to create a common brand of honey that is associated with Guyana’s rainforest that can be marketed as a specialised product,”  Ali said.

He told the conference that the Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC) will also be working with the Ministry of Agriculture in launching an initiative to support organic honey production.

President Ali said that GUY$300 million (One Guyana dollar=US$0.004 cents) will be included in the next national budget to develop food security and agriculture, as agriculture has been identified as one of the areas of priority for the indigenous communities.

Ali said a unit will also be set up to deal with hinterland food security and production.

“We want you, every single region, to identify young people, yourselves, who can be trained to become vets, agriculture support staff, extension officers and we are going to train them, we are going to pay for their training and send them back to the communities to work full time with you,” President Ali said.

“We are willing to immediately train 150 of your young people, from your regions and your communities in these areas to support food production, food security and agriculture expansion.”

Ali said the investment will be supported by a very “robust” programme to expand the production of traditional products in Region One.

“We are also working with external markets to have long-term arrangements for large-scale production of sweet cassava to meet those external market needs.”

“So before the end of the year, in selected communities, the Ministry of Agriculture will be consulting with you on supporting the development of large-scale cassava production to meet those external markets,” President Ali said.

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