Guyana to embark on first agricultural census in 65 years

Mar 30, 2017 News

By Suraj Narine
The inking of the US$15M loan between the State and the Inter-American Development Bank

Agriculture Minister, Noel Holder

(IDB) last month, will pave the way for the execution of Guyana’s first ever agricultural census.
This announcement was made by the Minister of Agriculture, Noel Holder, during the launch of the Sustainable Agriculture Development Programme (SADP) at the Agriculture Ministry in Georgetown yesterday morning.
“It will be our first Agricultural Census in 65 years, an event which is supposed to happen every 10 years,” the Minister said.
The preparation and implementation of the census is provided for under Component One of the SADP – Generating information for evidence-based policy making and resource management.
The information obtained from an agriculture census – according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) website – will reveal “the state of a country’s agricultural sector – from the size of holdings, land tenure, land use, area harvested, irrigation, livestock, labour and other agricultural inputs.”
This information is deemed vital in agricultural planning and policy-making, research and development and monitoring the impact of agriculture on the environment.
Minister Holder said that with the focus on Guyana’s ‘vital’ agriculture sector, information from the census will give planners and policymakers an understanding of the progress and future prospects of all agricultural industries and their products, and farm practices.
“It will also help farmers, policymakers and others involved in the industry to determine

Finance Minister, Winston Jordan

strategies to ensure sustainable farming.”
The Minister regaled the gathering of utterances made by the Finance Minister, Winston Jordan, who told the National Assembly last year during his 2017 Budget presentation, that this year will be one which will see the realisation of promises made by the Coalition Administration since it went into office back in May 2015.
“Minister Jordon, in his 2017 Budget Address, pledged 2017 as the year of realized promises of building a diversified, green economy: delivering the good life to all Guyanese.
With the launch here today, we are playing our part to increase the productivity of the agricultural sector while maintaining a sustainable and climate resilient use of natural resources in Guyana. This project speaks directly to building our green economy whilst contributing to providing a good life to all Guyanese.” Minister Holder said.
The Minister said, also, that the agricultural sector is expected to make a ‘major’ contribution to the development of a green state by contributing to food and nutrition security, poverty eradication, adaptation to climate change, building resilience in the sector, increase in employment to name a few.
“The Ministry is also expected to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 agenda, through inputs in the areas of livestock, fisheries, crops, irrigation and drainage, pesticide management and control and, marketing.
The collective interventions by the major sectors are required to ensure a more coordinated and harmonized policy approach.”

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