Cage fish farming, once doubted as unworkable in Guyana, is now in 43 communities. Most of them are in the hinterland, and residents are earning more and eating more fresh protein.

Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha gave the update in an interview with the Department of Public Information (DPI) on Thursday.

He said the programme has grown well beyond its pilot sites at Mainstay, Mashabo and Lake Capoey in Region Two.

“I can remember vividly two, three years ago when the president mentioned about cage fishing, people were laughing, saying that that kind of activity cannot be done in this part of the world… But we have proved them wrong,” Minister Mustapha said.

Cages are now in place at Rockstone, Shulinab, Nappi, Orealla, Siparuta and St Cuthbert’s Mission, among other communities.

The minister said the programme is helping villages “tremendously in supplementing their income and at the same time providing necessary proteins for the community.”

The programme has grown steadily this year. Minister Mustapha told DPI earlier this year that close to 53 cages were operating across the country, most of them in Indigenous and hinterland communities.

He said then that one cage can make about $8 million in a production cycle. A village with three or four cages could add between $24 million and $25 million to its local economy.

Under the programme, the government gives communities cages, fingerlings and feed, along with technical support and training from the Fisheries Department.

“I don’t want the communities, these indigenous communities to be dependent anymore, that you must go and give them things. I want this community to be a producer of commodities,” he said.

He noted that hinterland villages now run 13 agro-processing facilities, which package their own products and sell commercial quantities on the coast. Peanut butter made at St Ignatius in Region Nine is now on supermarket shelves in Georgetown.

The government’s support also extends to finding buyers. The New Guyana Marketing Corporation (New GMC) links producers with buyers, so communities are not left on their own once they start producing.

“We are not just doing these things and leave the people by themselves. We are working with them from production right on to marketing,” the minister said.

Minister Mustapha said he is impressed by how organised the communities are and how eager residents are to get into commercial activity.