Promising to be a “field” minister who will be accessible to farmers countrywide, newly appointed Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha says that his government will relentlessly pursue its manifesto promise of reopening shuttered sugar estates and a priority will be completing an assessment of the sugar sector to see how this can be achieved as soon as possible.
“I am a field man. Whenever I have to function, I go out in the field all the time. I will not be a Minister of Agriculture behind the desk. Agriculture is done in the fields, not in an office,” Mustapha told Stabroek News in an interview shortly after being sworn in on Wednesday.
His comments can be seen as an indirect swipe at his predecessor in the former government, who faced criticism for his management of the sector.
