{"id":28609,"date":"2026-03-05T21:21:43","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T01:21:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/?p=28609"},"modified":"2026-03-05T21:21:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T01:21:43","slug":"crop-insurance-technology-inclusion-driving-farm-productivity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/crop-insurance-technology-inclusion-driving-farm-productivity\/","title":{"rendered":"Crop insurance, technology, inclusion driving farm productivity"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n\n<p>Farmers across Guyana stand to benefit from a number of new initiatives aimed at boosting\u00a0agricultural productivity while building a more climate-resilient sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha highlighted these efforts during a ministerial roundtable\u00a0focused on closing the productivity gap in Latin America and the Caribbean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The discussions formed part of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation&#8217;s\u00a0regional conference currently underway in Brazil.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During his virtual presentation, Minister Mustapha pointed to several key initiatives\u00a0being implemented locally, including the government&#8217;s premium free crop insurance program, which\u00a0protects farmers against losses caused by floods and droughts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More than 4,200 rice farmers have already enrolled in the program.\u00a0The minister also noted that significant investments are being made in the drainage\u00a0and irrigation system, farm-to-market roads, and weather stations to strengthen the sector&#8217;s\u00a0resilience to climate-related hazards.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>&#8220;All these systems we have put in place to ensure that we close the gap in the agriculture\u00a0system in the production and productivity area,&#8221;<\/strong> he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The agriculture minister highlighted research, innovation, and technology as key to improving\u00a0productivity, including a new agriculture laboratory at NAREI that will significantly\u00a0increase the production of disease-free planting materials, along with integrated rice system\u00a0and precision agriculture to improve efficiency.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He also emphasised that inclusion remains central to Guyana&#8217;s agriculture strategy.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>&#8220;Closing the productivity gap is not possible without inclusion. In Guyana, our agricultural program ensures at least 35 per cent participation by youth and women.\u00a0Programmess engaging more than 300 youths in agriculture, the construction of over 700\u00a0trade houses, and support for women-led agro-processing initiatives are helping to expand opportunities\u00a0in the sector,&#8221; <\/strong>he added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The agriculture minister says these efforts, along with climate-smart farming and regional\u00a0collaboration, will help close the productivity gap while supporting sustainable growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Farmers across Guyana stand to benefit from a number of new initiatives aimed at boosting\u00a0agricultural productivity while building a more climate-resilient sector. Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha highlighted these efforts during&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28610,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[468,363,350,364],"tags":[488,573,746,370,412,405,11],"class_list":["post-28609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agriculture","category-national-transformation","category-news","category-technology","tag-488","tag-agriculture","tag-crop-insurance","tag-guyana","tag-ncn-guyana","tag-ncn-news","tag-technology"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28609"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28611,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28609\/revisions\/28611"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}