Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha, on Sunday, commissioned a new motor grader said to be worth $24 million in Region 6 (East Berbice-Corentyne). The ceremony was held at the ministry’s sub-office at Tarlogie on the Corentyne Coast. Region 6 was declared by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) for the People’s Prgressive Party/Civic in the 2020 General and Regional Elections. According to a government’s release the machine was procured under the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority’s (NDIA) 2022 Capital Expenditure programme. In delivering remarks at the ceremony the minister said that the government, through the Ministry of Agriculture, is working to double rice production within the next three years, and in order to achieve this, the ministry has expended large sums of money to execute much-needed rehabilitation work to access dams in the rice cultivation areas. He made known that $34 million was allocated initially for the region for dam maintenance works under the ministry and by the end of the year, roughly $84 million will be spent to rehabilitate access dams in the region because more work was needed. The minister further said that these are temporary works because the government has to do them every crop and this is why they are looking to construct all-weather roads but those are large projects that require a lot of funds but will be done over time. Farmers took the opportunity to inform the minister that several access dams in the cultivation areas need urgent rehabilitation and trenches in the area have not been cleaned for a while. Residents were assured all the dams will be rehabilitated and the trenches will be cleaned. |
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