CAPA aims at supporting farmers and stakeholders: Minister Mustaphir

Guyana: Zulfikar Mustapha- Minister of Agriculture, delivered a speech on behalf of the President, Irfaan Ali at the launch of Caribbean Agricultural Productivity improvement activity (CAPA) held at the University of Guyana’s George Walcott Lecture.

While delivering his remarks, he added that the project was launched with the objective of providing aid to the farmers and stakeholders in the fruit and vegetable industry. This will be done by promoting the use of market-driven agricultural practices and technologies, which will enable them to have easier access to domestic and regional markets.

He also added that the project was being implemented at a critical point where external economic and global activities continue to place challenges for global food security. This is particularly in the context of specific difficulties in accessing key inputs which are essential for agriculture.

Importantly, the farmers from Guyana will benefit from this project, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has funded it with $5.3 million.

The launch of CAPA is the start of an activity which is designed in response to the request of CARICOM leaders to the US with the concern of food security. Considering the 9th Summit of America held in 2022, all the action plans, be it; short, medium and long term, were developed by the US and Caribbean leaders.

Following the summit, investments were made for food security through the collaborative efforts of CARICOM, Govt. of Guyana and the US Agency for international development.

Last year in November,  Minister Mustapha had a meeting with a team of CAPA where they had discussions about priority areas of development in Guyana. Also, three of the crops were identified as value chain crops for providing development support. The names of the crops are turmeric, coconut and cherries.

All the actions in the country commit to the sincere and dedicated working of the minister. To this, people are even expressing the appreciation of the agriculture minister, Zulfikar Mustapha.

“The minister of Agriculture is doing a great job, Keep it up, ” quoted a citizen.