Guyana allocates whopping $97.6B budget to advance agricultural sector

Senior Minister Dr Ashni Singh announces a whopping $97.6 billion budget to advance the agricultural sector of Guyana in 2024. This announcement was made during the Budget Address 2024 on January 15.

Of this Budget, a major amount of $527.4 million has been set aside to support agro-processors and provide opportunities for farmers to add value to their products, while for Citrus and Spices, $100 has been budgeted.

Minister Singh highlighted that the sector continues to diversify into new crops while recording massive growth rapidly. He said that the agricultural sector is thriving because of the major investments and sustainable policies made by the People's Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government.

https://twitter.com/MinAgriGy/status/1747088813694882077

Within the agriculture sector, $1.3 billion has been allocated towards the GRDB (Guyana Rice Development Board) to support increased production and productivity of the rice industry.

For Corn and Soya Bean, the government announced a $967.8 million budget to improve the capacity of the Tacoma facility, which includes the installation of a conveyor system.

$78 has been allocated to coconut in order to expand the coconut sub-sector, while $1.2 billion was announced for Fisheries and Aquaculture development initiatives in 2024.

Furthermore, $1.5 billion is to support the livestock sector. For other crops also, $2.6 billion has been laid out to support other crop interventions.

During the 2024 budget presentation in the National Assembly on Monday, the Senior Minister announced that the government will continue to promote investments in the large-scale agriculture sector by opening up new lands while motivating the launch of modern farms to ease the utilization of technology and more efficient farming practices.

He expressed the government's intention to promote increased aquaculture and shrimp farming, cultivate new crops and boost livestock production while upgrading both drainage and irrigation to market infrastructure and support services. While announcing this, Dr Ashni Singh added that $72.3 billion will be used for drainage irrigation.

Other than this, Guyana will stay consistent with its projects mentioned in budget 2023 and plans are being offered to start the construction of a regional food hub on the highway of Soesdyke/Linden.

It is also to be noted that the government will also launch the hydroponic project, which will benefit more than 300 young people in Regions 2, 5 and 10.

The Minister also announced that plenty of planting materials and equipment, livestock, shade houses materials and poultry were distributed to develop agriculture, especially in the hinterland intermediate savannahs.

As per Singh, Guyana is poised to achieve food self-sufficiency and food security locally and around the Caribbean region by the next year.

Furthermore, the provision of a tissue culture laboratory at the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) is anticipated to produce one million plantlets yearly.