Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo on Friday called on Caribbean Community (CARICOM) heads of government to take a hands-on, direct approach to ensure their countries’ agriculture sector  gets much needed financial support and is not manipulated by “politically connected” major retail businesses. “In many of our countries, retail trade is dominated by monopolies across the Caribbean, by a single large group ...

United States-based Guyanese Plant  Pathologist Professor Pierce Paul on Friday welcomed local efforts to grow wheat and said much would hinge on the location, variety, expertise and incentives. He highlighted that some of the 30 varieties being examined by Guyana were selected from a country that has similar growing conditions. “For example: production region, weather conditions specifically. Wheat does well ...

A Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) study has found that climate change instead of oil exploration was the major reason for a reduction in fish catch in Guyana,  Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha said Friday. “During that period that we had the low catches, it’s referring to same form of problem we had with climate change and we had heavy rainfall. ...

President Irfaan Ali on Thursday announced a series of targets that are aimed at reducing Guyana’s US$30 million annual food import bill in line with the Caribbean Community’s (CARICOM) target to reduce food imports by 25 percent by 2025. Addressing the opening of the Caribbean Agriculture Investment Forum and Expo, the Guyanese leader who is responsible for agriculture in the ...

Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Keith Rowley on Thursday appealed to international players to finance the purchase of cargo and passenger ships to guarantee cheap transportation of agricultural produce across the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). “I gather that there are international supporters at this conference and I say here today, if you really want to help CARICOM to do what we ...

Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley on Thursday said there was need for sanitary and phytosanitary standards f0r agricultural produce, but cautioned that they should not be used as non-tariff trade barriers to the disadvantage of the majority. “Phytosanitary guards we need, yes, to ensure that we don’t spread disease unnecessarily among ourselves but they are not to ...

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday said he preferred a memorandum of understanding with Trinidad and Tobago as a way forward to removing a range of non-tariff barriers. “Hopefully, the MoU will go towards resolving the difficulties we have had so you have to have a pathway to solving the problem. You just can’t complain about it and I think ...

The Guyana government on Wednesday announced that Guyanese, who were unable to complete their secondary education or obtained less than five CSEC or GCE subjects including English and Mathematics, would be given an opportunity to be qualified and eventually pave the way for tertiary education. “This scholarship programme is being offered to applicants at no cost and will be done ...

The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GGCI) on Wednesday urged the Guyana g0vernment not to sign a memorandum of understanding with Trinidad and Tobago unless that twin-island nation removes a series of non-tariff barriers. Up to late Wednesday, GCCI President Timothy Tucker said the Guyana government did not inform him whether it would heed the business organisation’s call not ...

The governing People’s Progressive Party (PPP) on Wednesday rejected calls by the opposition coalition of A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) for a “comprehensive” review of Guyana’s legal architecture for elections, saying that public consultations began six months ago. “The call from the Coalition camp for a comprehensive review of what took place in March 2020 before electoral ...