Food Production Minister Devant Maharaj has confirmed that lands in Guyana's Canje Basin are being made available for T&T investment in large-scale agriculture projects. He said scientific and empirical data on the potential for farming in the area will be obtained before the land is offered to investors."It's not farmers, but we want investors to come in to farm with their primary function to invest," the minister explained.
Maharaj, who visited Guyana for talks with his counterpart, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, said their meetings had been fruitful and had further cemented the agreement between the two countries. T&T and Guyana signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) earlier this year for 10,000 acres of Guyana land to be given to T&T for farming.In a telephone interview with the T&T Guardian from Guyana, Maharaj said his ministry was moving ahead with plans to develop mega-farms in Guyana.
He said there was now agreement on the areas in which entrepreneurs could invest, including cultivation of corn, soya, other legumes, and root crops; livestock rearing; value-added products such as cassava flour; and aquaculture. A technical team will meet in two weeks to work out policies and strategies for importation of products and crops from Guyana to T&T.
Maharaj said his ministry would advertise for expressions of interest from local entrepreneurs. After that, site visits will be arranged, plans solicited, and proposals evaluated by both countries before a final allocation is made. The agreement allows for processing plants to be set up in Guyana for products that require some processing before export, including meat, he said.
"These strategies being utilised are geared towards the goal of Trinidad and Tobago, and also Guyana, reducing our food import bills from countries outside of the region, increasing our own food security inter-regionally and bringing down food inflation in our respective countries–all with the backdrop of creating sustainable employment and diversification of our economies," Maharaj said.The minister explained that large parcels of land were needed to produce crops such as corn and soya economically.
He said large scale production was needed to achieve economies of scale to bring production to a competitive level and T&T did not have large parcels of land dedicated solely to agriculture where better management and production can take place.
T&T is not the only country that has been granted land in Guyana's Canje Basin. The Ajeenkya D Y Patil Group of India recentlty signed an MOU with the Government of Guyana for 65,000 hectares of land there for agricultural-related projects, which could include dairy processing; rice milling and processing; fisheries and poultry; fruit and vegetables; and sugar cane production with ethanol and power.
Investors from Malaysia and China have also signed MOUs with Guyana's Agriculture Ministry to explore prospects for planting palm trees in the Canje Basin.
–with reporting by Shastri Boodan