(Georgetown, Guyana, June 1, 2025)—His Excellency, President Dr Irfaan Ali, announced a series of massive transformational initiatives to revolutionise the agriculture industry in Region Three, during a public meeting with hundreds of residents, including rice and cash crop farmers and fisherfolk, at the National Track and Centre Facility in Leonora today.
These transformational initiatives include setting aside $50bn to turn all farm-to-market access roads into all-weather roads, reducing the cost of transportation, increasing efficiency, and reducing spoilage. According to the President, hundreds of thousands of acres of new land for farming and other activities will open up when key infrastructural projects are completed in the region.
“We are talking to you about a clearly defined vision, understanding what investments are needed to ensure that vision is realised, and more importantly, committing to you to make the investment to realise that vision.”
The President noted that other investments include forming food production districts in different areas of the region. Each district will be assigned various types of machinery and equipment, including mobile pumps, to help farmers develop their lands and maintain drainage and irrigation.
“The prospects of this region and what lies ahead in this region are beyond imagination.”
Notably, the President underscored that the Government will work with farmers to create a mechanism to guarantee price stability for rice and enhance productivity.
“We want to work with you on creating a fund and a mechanism to guarantee some sort of price stabilisationfor the farmers… whilst we are working on a high-yielding variety, the climate-resilient variety… We are also working on crop insurance… creating that mechanism—the first country that will take this bold step, so we reduce the risk.”
President Ali also noted that the Government will provide combines to assist rice farmers with between 1 and 30 acres of land during harvesting.
He reminded of several other ongoing initiatives that are aimed at increasing productivity, resilience, and sustainability of the sector, including investing in world class storage and drying facilities in every region; developing a world class food hub for the processing, packaging and exportation of products; setting-up of an agriculture development fund; creating between 10-15 acres of land for high value agriculture crops using climate smart and resilient techniques including shade houses and hydroponics; building a fertiliser production facility, among others.
“These are the initiatives, these are the plans, these are the programmes. It is not only to support agriculture, but to support an entire ecosystem that will generate employment, create opportunities, build entrepreneurs, but importantly bring pride in agriculture and food production.”
The President engaged with farmers, facilitating a Q&A segment where community members shared their ideas and development priorities.
Minister of Agriculture, the Honourable Zulfikar Mustapha; Minister of Education, the Honourable Priya Manickchand; and Minister within the Ministry of Public Works, the Honourable Deodat Indar, other government and regional officials were present.