Guyana signs agreement with Caricom Development Fund for US$7.3 M Financing for farming community roads

DSC8215 Georgetown : In the presence of President Donald Ramotar, Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh and CEO of the Caricom Development Fund (CDF) Ambassador Lorne Mc Donnough signed the Loan Agreement for the Country Assistance Programme between the CDF and the Government of Guyana (GoG).

The signing ceremony took place on the margins of the Caricom Heads of Government meeting in Port of Spain, Trinidad, Saturday last.

Under this Agreement, the Fund will provide much needed assistance in the form of a blended Loan and grant, not exceeding US$7,317,996. This is to be complemented by counterpart resources from the GoG for an amount not less than US$1,779,504.

Guyana will tap into much needed resources, comprising of a reimbursable loan, not exceeding the equivalent of US$4,660,007 and a non-reimbursable grant, not exceeding the equivalent of US$2,657,989.

Under Article 158 of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, the CDF was established “for the purpose of providing financial or technical assistance to disadvantaged countries, regions and sectors.”

The CDF financing will fund two levels of interventions, (a) upgrading of all Weather Access Roads to all Weather Paved Roads and (b) upgrading of Fair-Weather Access Dams to all Weather Roads. The Programme will address critical interventions in some of Guyana’s major farming communities, the flag ship of which is the upgrade of the 14 km Parika/Ruby Backdam access roads to all-weather asphaltic concrete roads, providing access to over 330 farming households and over 2,000 acres of mixed crop farming. The project will also fund interventions for farm- road upgrades from earthen dams to all Weather Roads in Kuru Kuru to Laluni, Region 4 and Onvergwagt, Region 5 among others.

The project objectives are consistent with the objectives of the Caricom Single Market Economy (CSME) as set out in Articles 56 of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas. The project is expected to improve income and employment opportunities and contribute to food and security and poverty alleviation. The areas where project interventions would be implemented would see increased agricultural production and productivity. It is forecast that within the target areas, exports will increase by 0.5% and non-rice GDP will increase by 0.5 % within two years of completion of the project.

The main purpose of these road improvement and upgrade interventions is to directly increase the volume and quality of farm output reaching the market, lowering spoilage volumes at the farm gate  as well as the productivity of Guyana’s agricultural sector though the upgrade of weather prone farm access roads to all-weather roads.

This and other agricultural farm access dams were determined to be inadequate in facilitating maximum all year-round agricultural production and sales as well as the attainment of rapid diversification in the sector. The farmers, producers and buyers face difficulties accessing farms during adverse weather to transport inputs, machinery and produce. Moreover, following the adverse weather, the dams often remain inaccessible for some time due to the degradation of the dams from heavy machinery and regular traffic.  The access dams service the production and marketing of important agricultural commodities such as livestock, rice and a large range of non-traditional crops such as coconut, pepper, pineapple, citrus, watermelons and aquaculture.