– by Celestine Chacon
The Government is looking to increase farmers’ income through a newly launched rice-duck integrated farming initiative.
The programme, officially rolled out on Tuesday, is being implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Guyana Rice Development Board.
Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha is encouragingfarmers to diversify their operations by dedicating portions of their land to other agricultural activities.
He highlighted the potential of raising about 100 ducks on one acre of rice land, giving farmers another way to earn moneyrather than relying solely on rice.
“This concept offers our farmers an opportunity to diversify their income. It also allows farmers to make better use of their land and improve the overall profitability of their operations,” he said.
Mustapha says the initiative, inspired by President Irfaan Ali’s push for integrated farming, forms part of a wider strategy that includes rice-fish farming, coconut cultivation and high-value crop production.
“We believe that agriculture will shape Guyana’s future for time to come. It can have all the natural resources in the world, all the oil and gas, bauxite, gold, diamond, timber, but if we don’t have food how we will survive. And that will shape our destiny. Agriculture will shape our destiny,” he added.
He also urged the relevant agencies to expand the initiative beyond the research stage and introduce it to farmers in Regions Two, Three, Four, Five and Six.
The Minister said efforts are also underway to develop local coconut varieties, reducing the need to import planting material from Brazil.
He explained that Hope Coconut Estate, NAREI and NDIA are working together to establish a 50-acre coconut nursery to produce high-yielding coconut varieties locally.
