A delegation from Trinidad & Tobago is in Guyana for a meeting to examine ways to implement President Bharrat Jagdeo’s initiative to reduce food insecurity and poverty in the region. A Government Informa-tion Agency (GINA) release said the team, headed by Coordinator of the Project Unit in the twin island’s Ministry of Finance Kamal Mankee, yesterday met Minister of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation, Dr Henry Jeffrey. Mankee told GINA that the visit was to help understand the concept of what was proposed and what T&T could offer in the initialising phase.

While in Guyana for the rest of the week, the delegation will meet representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, the New Guyana Marketing Corporation, the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) and the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest) and will also visit selected areas indentified for the project. The President’s proposed project will see Guyana making available over 120,000 acres of land to develop large-scale production of non-traditional agricultural products and livestock. Crops targeted for production include corn, soybean, cashew, cassava and peanut with an agro-processing industry also on the agenda.

The release recalled that areas identified for the project are the intermediate and Rupununi savannahs, the North West District and Hope Estate, East Coast Demerara and local farmers whose farms have already been certified for export could also enter into joint venture arrangements to expand production.