The government is now looking to ramp up black-eye peas cultivation on 1,000 acres of land in Region One (Barima-Waini), which could eventually supply the CARICOM market, Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha said on Monday on the sidelines of the handing over of inputs to farmers at the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI).
A Department of Public Information (DPI) press release said the disclosure aligns with President Irfaan Ali’s vision of positioning Guyana as a hub for food production and reclaiming its title as the bread basket of the Caribbean region. “We can produce all the needs for the Caribbean [and so] we are looking to start some cultivation. First of all, we’ll look at the areas in Region One. We are looking to build facilities in Region One as long as the soil type is good there and hopefully, we can start large-scale production of black-eye peas, coming out of Region One,” the DPI release said.
