Twenty-five shade houses growing high-value crops will constitute the first phase of an agricultural initiative that was launched by President Irfaan Ali on Tuesday for young people.
The Agriculture and Innovation Entrepreneurship Programme was inaugurated at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre at Liliendaal.
According to a release from the Office of the President, Ali announced that the government will provide all the resources and materials to develop 25 shade houses in the first phase which will be used to produce high-value crops such as broccoli and cauliflower.
The project will see collaboration from the Minis-tries of Agriculture; Culture, Youth and Sport; Tourism, Industry and Commerce and the Joint Services, among other groups.
The President said that according to data, the shade house production per cycle is expected to be 3000 pounds and with three cycles per annum this will yield approximately 9000 pounds per year.
The wholesale value of this, he said, is $57 million, while the retail value would be approximately $112 million.
“So you are talking here about a business that can generate in a net sense using these three costs, close to $60 to $70 million annually”, the President said.
He said that the programme will be expanded to around 300 shade houses across the country. The shade houses, he noted, will be managed by past and present agriculture students who will form themselves into a company with each becoming a shareholder.
In addition, an advisory committee will help them in setting up the company and its operations. They are also expected to manage their business on a rotational basis.
“What will take Guyana forward is what we are doing here; building responsible leadership and having young people lead in that responsible leadership because you are the ones who will inherit this Guyana that we want to build, and you have to be a key part of building that responsible leadership”, the President said, according to the release.
