Georgetown : Minister in the Ministry of Agriculture Alli Baksh visited the New Guyana Marketing Corporation’s (GMC) Agro Packaging Facility located at Parika, East Bank Essequibo yesterday.
The facility currently packages cassava, sweet potatoes and eddoes.
Minister Baksh said the facility is very important to the farmers in the Essequibo and Pomeroon as it offers easy access to the facility and it is close to the market. “Farmers can bring their produce here and ensure it is prepared to standards that are acceptable for exportation and for the market which is close by,” Minister Baksh said.
The Minister believes that the new GMC has been doing a fantastic job to provide assistance to farmers using the means and resources that are available to visit their farms, interact with them to ascertain the level of intervention that is needed.
“Right here in Parika there are thousands of acres of farm lands in nontraditional crops and farmers are encouraged to go more as government has provided them with the necessary capacities to do so such as roads and access to loans…what we are trying to do is to encourage farmers to grow more and provide better facilities, not only a packaging plant but, also drainage and irrigation which has been improving over the years, “Minister Baksh said.
He further said that government is not only investing through the new GMC to upgrade the facility but, is also looking for partnerships with both local and foreign farmers.
“We already have partnership with the farmers of Parika…we are establishing partnership with an individual entity from Trinidad which would see the expansion of this facility…we ideally prefer to have partnerships with locals who produce on a large scale for exportation,” Minister Baksh said.
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