Guyana – India to create regional agri-tech campus to expand the agriculture sector
GEORGETOWN, Guyana, (DPI) – President, Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali said the strong bilateral relationship between India and Guyana will continue to produce fruitful outcomes, and as part of its efforts to expand the agriculture sector, noted that a regional agri-tech campus will be created to support the regional food hub. This is in keeping with the government’s commitment to advance the region’s food security strategy.
This was highlighted by the president during his address at the 74th anniversary of the Republic of India on Thursday, hosted by the Indian High Commission in Guyana. He underlined, that the discussions were comprehensive and covered areas related to the oil and gas sector.
Dr Ali underscored the discussions with Bangalore Bio-Innovation Centre will help to build Guyana’s agriculture sector with an ecosystem that includes a regional food hub. This forms part of an ambitious strategy to stimulate a biotech ecosystem to expand the agriculture sector.
Additionally, this will help to create an agri-tech campus that will deal with the technological aspect, research and development, technology, human resource training, and improvement in policies that will lead to greater yield and productivity.
Over the next few months, president Ali noted a plethora of measures aimed at creating a new ecosystem centred around agriculture, which will focus on high-value, new areas, and innovation. He added that technological innovation plays an integral role in nation-building.
The head of state underlined that Guyana is building a food production and agriculture system on a platform that will make it competitive and resilient to operate in an economy in 2023 and beyond.
The president noted that his administration will continue to position Guyana to be a strong, responsible leader, regionally and internationally, on the environment, climate, energy, and food security, among other areas.
“We must find strategic partners bilaterally, to work with us on a government-to-government relationship, and basis to advance the energy sector. This is a policy position of the government. I am very pleased with the discussions we had at the highest level in India. And their overall deep interests in being a part of the entire ecosystem of our energy sector,” the president asserted.
India’s support to Guyana has been outstanding, president Ali acknowledged while stating that their collaboration has touched nearly every facet of national development “through education, scholarships, training, technology transfers, and evolution of cultural development.”
President Ali also lauded India for its technological innovations which include the metro stations and harnessing the water source for electrical consumption.
“I look forward to India playing a key role in developing and helping economies, especially in transforming themselves from technological and human resource perspectives,” president Ali underlined.
The president was joined by vice president, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, speaker of the National Assembly, Manzoor Nadir, minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation, Hugh Todd, and former president, Donald Ramotar.