The Cuban government has committed to providing the skills to support Guyana’s agricultural diversification and has offered specialist training to agriculture officers and students at the various institutions under the ministries in the Spanish-speaking country.
This follows what have been described as “successful discussions” when Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud held high level talks yesterday with Cuba’s Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Sugar and Minister of Food Production in Cuba, a press release said. The meetings looked at Cuban specialists supporting Guyana’s agricultural diversification.
Further, Cuba is interested in the modernization of Guyana’s agriculture sector and will send a team of officials to study the changes that Guyana is undergoing for agriculture diversification and food production.
Persaud also briefed Cuban officials on Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) and Forest Management, which deepened that country’s interest in forest management. To this end Cuba has requested a senior forest officer from Guyana to make a presentation on forest management. Cuba is 23% forested.
In addition, the release stated, a team of experts from Cuba will support the implementation of GuySuCo’s turnaround plan in the areas of crop production and management; areas where the corporation is deficient.
In continuing efforts to deal with the weaknesses in the industry, particularly on the cultivation side, Guyana is pursuing the tapping of Cuban expertise in the areas of agri engineer/field workshop, soil scientist, biometrician (biometry specialist and civil engineer).
Experts will cover a range of skills in order to improve GuySuCo’s agricultural programme, from breeding to tissue culture, pest and disease control to better field management, and initially six experts are being tapped.
GuySuCo and the Cuban skills agency for global sugar support – Technoazucar – are to finalize details, the release said.
Cuba provides skills to support sugar industries in Brazil, Guatemala, Panama, Nigeria, and Vietnam, among other sugar producing countries.
According to the release, Guyana and Cuba are expected to learn from each other as the sugar sectors in both countries are being modernized and reformed in the light of changes to market arrangements.
Like Guyana, Cuba has embarked on a mechanization programme as well as research to deal with climate change and its impact on sugar cultivation.
Recently GuySuCo tapped three experts from India for the new Skeldon factory and skills are targeted to train local experts.
Meanwhile, the cooperation arrangement is expected to boost Guyana’s efforts to diversify and increase exports and supplies to Caricom countries. Moreover, cooperation between the National Agricultural Research Insti-tute (NARI) and Cuba’s Tropical Agricultural Institute is anticipated.
Dr Dwight Waldrond, Head, Livestock Develop-ment Unit of the Guyana Livestock Development Board and Rajendra Singh, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, GuySuCo, accompanied Persaud to Cuba, the release concluded.
