The Agriculture and Innovation Entrepreneurship Programme which is intended to boost the agriculture sector while empowering youths in agriculture and creating jobs, was launched on Tuesday.

Under the programme, the Government will provide the resources and materials to develop 25 shade houses in the first phase that will be used to house thousands of high-value crops such as broccoli and cauliflower.

These shade houses will be managed by past and present agriculture students who will form themselves into a company, with each becoming a shareholder.

In addition, an advisory committee would assist them in setting up and coordinating their company and its operations.  They are also expected to manage their business on a rotational basis.

During the launching, President Irfaan Ali said  that the aim is to link the country’s food security strategy to the regional food security system as Guyana continues to develop its agricultural potential.

“We are the Agricultural seat of the region and we have to lead by example. So while we are working on one hand to expand local production for the local market, we are already eliminating the barriers to the regional market so that we are going to expand this progressively until we are able to reach into the regional market also,” the President said.

The President said if Guyana is to become the Agriculture food basket of the region, it must innovate and grow more food.

“If we are to become the Agricultural basket of the region, we have to grow what we are doing a thousand times and to do that we have to encourage more people to go into the direction of Agriculture and to see a viable future of it, and a viable future is not about sitting in an office,” the President said.

Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha said he is sure the programme will attract a lot of young persons since young people have been developing their Agricultural potential over the years.

“We have a large number of young people who would have graduated over the years tends to gone into other fields or go into office work in the Agriculture sector rather than to involve in Agricultural activity and help to develop the Agricultural sector,” Mr. Mustapha observed.

The project will be done through inter-agency and inter-ministry support systems that will see collaboration from the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce and the Joint Services, among other groups.

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