New project launched to help Bethany farmers succeed

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56525397

New project launched to help Bethany farmers succeed
Stabroek News
Thursday, July 26th 2007

A project is underway in Bethany, Region Two, which will see some
residents, especially women, trained in other-crops farming from the
planting to the marketing stages with emphasis on gaining higher
yields.

Project Manager of the Poor Rural Communities Support Services Project,
Sasenarine Singh said on Tuesday at the commissioning of an
experimental plot of pepper and pumpkin at Bethany, that the initiative
was focused primarily on Amerindians and especially women.

Singh said that the project would empower farmers who would be able to
garner support from agencies such as the National Agricultural Research
Institute, the Pesticides Board, the New Guyana Marketing Corpora-tion
and the University of Guyana.

The Bethany farmers will work closely with these stakeholders, and will
be guided as to the proper preparation of the land, and effective
cultivation methods. Singh said the knowledge gained would be used to
create the "farmers book two". As the project progresses, farmers will
be enlightened as to the proper harvesting and packing of produce for
marketing.

Bethany is home to over 76 families, some 32 of which depend on farming
for their livelihood.

Singh told the farmers that this project would also provide them with
an alternative since Bethany was mainly a logging area. The project
manager informed all that the community was chosen because there was
unity among its people.

Meanwhile, the farmers lauded the stakeholders for the knowledge
imparted so far and noted that the decisions they made would either be
for success or failure, since they were benefiting from the "use of the
rod rather that being fed the fish".

The PRCSSP is being implemented by the government through the Ministry
of Agriculture to upgrade poor farming communities in Regions Two and
Three.