NEW AMSTERDAM, Berbice — October 14, 2026
The Minister of Agriculture has challenged the graduating class of 2026 of the Guyana School of Agriculture (GSA) to take their skills to the farm and help cut production costs, improve quality and raise yields.
Addressing the graduation ceremony, the minister said those are the three main objectives of the sector. He told graduates who will work as extension officers that they must show farmers practically how to produce more, not simply recite classroom theory.
The minister said government has put more than $44 million into the GSA's livestock farm this year, including a new training centre and office valued at about $21.8 million. The first cohort of the certificate in livestock production and management programme graduated at the ceremony. He also said the school has been re-registered with the National Accreditation Council of Guyana until June 2029.
He announced that the President will commission a situation room and data centre at the Ministry of Agriculture by the end of this month. A tender for a centre of excellence at the school is to go out before the end of the year. The school is also being positioned as a regional centre of excellence in partnership with the American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture.
The minister said a tissue culture laboratory at the school has started producing planting material, and is expected to turn out about one million plants a year within roughly six months. He said Guyana imported $2.6 billion in high-value crops such as broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and bell pepper for the hospitality and oil and gas sectors in 2022, and that this has since been reduced by almost 90 percent through local farms and the shade house programme.
He praised the growing number of women in agriculture, saying participation has passed the 35 percent target set by the President for women and youth in ministry projects. He urged young graduates not to wait on government jobs, pointing to financing through commercial banks and the Guyana Development Bank, which was launched last year.
Graduates from Grenada, St. Lucia and Jamaica were among the class, 12 students in all from the wider Caribbean. The minister, who chairs the CARICOM ministerial task force on food production and food security, said Guyana remains committed to the regional goal of cutting the food import bill by 25 percent.
He also said government is building storage and drainage infrastructure. He will travel to Region Two on Friday to turn the sod for a silo, and high-level canals are being constructed in Regions Three, Five and Six.
The minister urged graduates to respect the experience of farmers, keep learning, and see their certificates as the start of their responsibility to the sector.
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By LRTVS NewsWatch · Channel 10. This report first aired on LRTVS NewsWatch.
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