The agricultural sector has been allocated $17.1 billion in the 2019 national budget to ramp up diversification to take advantage of available resources and to build economic resilience, while prioritising food safety and security, improved infrastructure, new value chains and value-added industries, Finance Minister Winston Jordan has said.
Jordan said in his budget presentation on Monday that traditional agriculture will continue to be one of the main pillars of Guyana’s economic development and is forecast to contribute 16.2 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product in 2018.
In spite of setbacks in the sugar industry, he said, “the sector has huge potential for growth, being pivotal to increasing household incomes, reducing unemployment and, ultimately, lowering the poverty rate.”
