On Wednesday, Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha participated in a virtual dialogue with Brazil’s Minister of Agriculture Tereza Cristina and Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture’s (IICA) Director General Dr. Manuel Otero. The discussed collaboration to improve the local agriculture sector.
Other officials from IICA, Guyana and Brazil also participated in the forum. During the discourse, officials discussed several areas of collaboration to develop different aspects of the agriculture sector in both countries, technical cooperation, investment in infrastructure to support agricultural expansion, human resources, and partnerships between companies from both countries.
Minister Mustapha said the engagement was both timely and important. He told officials that the recent amendment to the Partial Scope Agreement augurs well for Guyana’s plans to increase rice production and tap into new markets by 2025.
Dpi.gov.gy quoted him as saying: “This is a very important engagement for us as we anticipate continued collaborations with Brazil and IICA to further develop our agriculture sector. We are at a critical point in terms of developing our agriculture sector and our overall economy. Over the last eight months, government has made a lot of progress in terms of realigning Guyana’s agriculture. Over the years, Guyana and Brazil have enjoyed an excellent relationship in trade and agriculture development.”