More land for farming under Lears Project

Within the next six months, seven acres of arable land at Lears, St Michael, will be transformed into farmland under the Lears Urban Land Lease and Food Security Programme.

During a tour of the area on Saturday, President of Guyana Dr Irfaan Ali said the space will be used possibly for shrimp production or growing butternut squash and cucumber — but not limited to those.

“We are looking at this facility to see how we can increase revenue streams whether it would be in shrimp production, catfish or tilapia production and the technical  teams both in Barbados and Guyana would work together on all the possibilities that are endless in optimizing the production and revenue for existing facilities.”

Ali said that now is the time for forward-thinking futuristic Caribbean nationals to move in getting desirable results where food security is concerned.

“This is a different time with different results that we want to achieve. We don’t want the same old mindset, if we continue with the same old mindset we can’t get anywhere. The new mindset requires us to view things differently,” he said.

This new partnership, the President added, is a means of showing CARICOM what is possible.

“We have decided as President of Guyana and [Prime Minister of] Barbados, to create a model to demonstrate to CARICOM that we can work within the context of CSME. For that to happen, these two countries have to lead the way in changing the way we think and relate,” Ali said.

Meanwhile,  Prime Minister Mia Mottley said that the seven-acre lot at Lears will be on lease from owners C.O.Williams  in order to facilitate over 100 farmers.

The land will have the Guyana and Barbados food terminal, which will host 45 containers and will allow for packaging, storing and blast freezing.

Mottley said that all of the land will be utilized for maximum profit.

“Every square inch under the government’s possession must be put out for allocation for people to farm. The notion that only the state can farm is nonsense and we need to be able to make sure that people who want the opportunity to farm are given the opportunity,” Mottley said. 

The Caribbean Community has agreed to a reduction of about 25 per cent in its food import bill by 2025 and the production at Lears is a move towards that goal. (MR)