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Officer appointed to help promote agriculture in Region 10 schools
The appointment of an agricultural officer is expected to help promote the subject area of agriculture in Region Ten schools. This development comes even as the Region embarks on a massive agricultural drive to enhance and further promote agriculture through its Regional Democratic Council.
Mr. Deryck Collins, the recently appointed officer, said that already a number of agricultural initiatives are in train. These will see the region, which is known for mining, pursuing agriculture projects instead.
Collins said that his department has sought to execute a two-phase pilot project which targets secondary schools within the region and will by extension create an avenue for the community to benefit.
“We have commenced all activities slated for 2019. There would be a two-phase project whereby we seek to establish agriculture in the schools, while we also seek to push agriculture production in the community.
Region 10 Agricultural Officer, Mr. Deryck Collins.
“The first phase targets the schools and we hope to complete this by May/June. In the off season constructors will be building shade houses in the seven secondary schools [across the region],” said Collins.
He also disclosed that while his department will provide the initial planting material, “Some secondary schools have requested poultry, swine and even fish as in the case of the Multilateral [School].”
According to Collins, although the construction of shade houses was initially proposed, based on the estimates for these, the Region may only be able to complete 16. He further pointed out that discussions have already been held with the various schools.
The process has begun with schools being encouraged to play their part in the process.
“The first set of seeds and seedlings are about to be purchased while we have also purchased the plastic for the shade houses and we are waiting on the schools to hold their end of the bargain,” said Collins.
Commenting on the need for training, Collins disclosed that already one session was held through the Region’s collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health’s Veterinary Unit and other stakeholders.
This training, he said, focused primarily on eliminating bottom house slaughtering which he said is critically important if the production standards are to be lifted.
“This training saw a full turn out of some 45 plus farmers. Later in March we will be holding two training sessions which will see one session dealing with Sweet Pepper agronomy and the other focusing on Poultry disease,” the agricultural officer shared.
According to Collins, training is particularly important since there are some crops that require significant attention as does the rearing of poultry. He disclosed that “many times what we find is that a lot of persons rear both layers and meat birds, but do not take into consideration the diseases that affect these birds so we have a lot of persons crying out for heavy mortality, so through this training we are seeking to bring about awareness,” Collins said.
The Region Ten Agricultural Officer has therefore given assurance that for the rest of the year the Region will be embarking on at least two training sessions each month. He stressed that this would be important as efforts are made to enhance the agricultural sector within the region. Collins added that a team will be visiting the communities along the Demerara, Berbice and Essequibo Rivers once every quarter in order to reach out to farmers in every area of the Region.
“Our plan is to bring Region Ten back to where it used to be in terms of it being self-sufficient in the area of agriculture. “So we will be meeting and going to every area so as to ensure that the right training and systems are put in place,” Collins added.
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