Grow More Food Campaign

Experiencing a decline in logging, residents of the Supenaam Creek are returning to farming with new lands being opened as the government digs canals in the area.

Much vaunted plans to grow mushrooms – the type of initiative being targeted in the Grow More Food campaign by the government – have failed to ignite interest and the project has been abandoned while the edible fungi continue to be imported to satisfy local consumption.

-see great need for cannery, depot ‘We nah get market… We nah getting price’ (This is the ninth part in a series on the Grow More Food campaign) In his laden citrus grove in the Pomeroon, Rudolph Gobin fixes a shirt on a stick and clangs a crude bell.

– despite focus on stepped up farming, exports (This is the eighth part in a series on the Grow More Food campaign)Many days the Parika Pack House is silent with little activity inside the vast building.

‘We want a good road; without a good road, nothing doing’ (This is the seventh part in a series on the Grow More Food campaign) Producing for years to supply the local market, farmers at Look-out, Parika and Naamryck, East Bank Essequibo say there have been changes in the agriculture landscape but little that encourages them to make the next leap.

– they’re only receiving promises, they say (This is the 6th part in a series on the Grow More Food campaign) It is cherry-picking time on Edward Patterson’s farm at Laluni and several workers harvest thousands of the little red fruit under a blazing sun.

‘The amount of farm that the Minister of Agriculture tell people ah grow, it ain’t gat no market for am’ (This is the 5th part in a series on the Grow More Food campaign) Surgim Sarju plans to rear fish and keep bees.

-middlemen reign supreme in Black Bush Polder (This is the fourth part in a series on the Grow More Food campaign) Quantities of ochro and boulanger were left unpicked in Black Bush Polder fields in August.

-export market seen as too picky `They saying this ah the food basket but it ain’t get no proper road and by the time you reach market, the basket bruk up’ (This is the third part in a series on the Grow More Food campaign.

(This is the second part in a series on the Grow More Food campaign.

–ministry says exports doubled since 2006 Shortly after the return to office of the PPP/C government in 2006, Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud announced an ambitious drive to boost food production by focusing on the 4 ps: pineapple, peanuts, plantains and passion fruit and this later evolved into the broader Grow More Food Campaign.