To en­sure that the live­stock sec­tor in Guyana re­mains vi­able to sup­ply grow­ing de­mand, Min­is­ter of Agri­cul­ture Robert Per­saud on Mon­day met with rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Guyana Poul­try Pro­duc­ers' As­so­ci­a­tion to dis­cuss agri­cul­ture de­vel­op­ment plans for 2011. The plan will see the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture and the as­so­ci­a­tion col­lab­o­rat­ing to mon­i­tor pro­duc­tion to en­sure that there is ad­e­quate sup­ply of chick­en on the mar­ket.

For the first time in many years there is ad­e­quate sup­ply of poul­try on the mar­ket; how­ev­er, the as­so­ci­a­tion has com­plained about the non-vac­ci­na­tion of ba­by chicks, which re­sults in the stunt­ed growth of the birds. Per­saud stat­ed that gov­ern­ment is cur­rent­ly ex­plor­ing mar­kets in Trinidad and Suri­name, which will al­low pro­duc­ers ac­cess to ex­ter­nal mar­kets, while urg­ing them to be more proac­tive.

The as­so­ci­a­tion wel­comed the ini­tia­tive while as­sur­ing the agri­cul­ture min­is­ter of sup­ply­ing the mar­ket, since this will en­able them to be more fi­nan­cial­ly se­cure. In Ju­ly 2009, ac­cord­ing to the as­so­ci­a­tion, there was a high price be­ing paid for the com­mod­i­ty from the hatch­eries; how­ev­er, giv­en the glut cur­rent­ly on the mar­ket, sales are ex­pect­ed to de­crease. The as­so­ci­a­tion has made a re­quest for an in­de­pen­dent body to be formed to in­ves­ti­gate the is­sue of non-vac­ci­na­tion of broil­er chicks.

Mean­while, Per­saud said that as the de­mand for rice in­creas­es, due to the short­fall on the world mar­ket, re­quests have been made for Guyana to sup­port oth­er coun­tries apart from Venezuela. How­ev­er, he has made re­quest for ex­ports to be re­duced so as to sup­ply the lo­cal de­mand.

GI­NA