President Dr Irfaan Ali has revealed that an audit into existing farm-to-market access roads across the country has been launched. Further, billions of dollars are being set aside to construct these roads.
The Head of State was at the time addressing farmers, including livestock and cash crop farmers in Region Three (Essequibo Islands/West Demerara). During his visit, he spoke of solutions the government is working on.
“We have the existing farming lands, in which cost of production is high because of the challenges you have with transportation from the farm to the market. That is because most of it is still earthen dams.”
“So let me tell you the strategy. Right now, we’re completing an audit of all the farm-to-market access dams that we have all across the region. And we’re going to set aside $50 billion to start with, to fix all those farm-to-market access dams into all-weather, hard-surface roads,” he further announced.
According to President Ali, these initiatives would greatly assist the farmers in managing their costs, as well as closing the window for crops to suffer from spoilage.
“We have an estimate of about 75,000 acres of land, where people have transport or lease – land owned by people, but it is idle land right now because they don’t have access… Access is not all that you need. You will have access, but the capital investment to develop those lands will be incredibly high.”
“So, the government will form different agricultural districts with you. And we will assign machinery to those districts, and they will help with the capital development of those lands for the farmers.”
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