Government Interventions: Projects Executed By Guyana Marketing Corporation

organizations and individuals who manufacture condiments and pineapple related products, were invited to showcase and sell their various and distinct products.

As the Christmas season began, the Guyana Shop introduced its raffle, where patrons totaling in excess of were given a coupon to enter the raffle, for every $3000 spent. Hampers were donated by a few Agro Processors, namely:- NAMILCO, New Horizon Inc.(Ricks and Sari), Mohamed‟s Mfg.(Peppy‟s) and Jet‟s Ent.

With all its promotional activities and festivity, the year 2013 can be deemed a very successful one. The Guyana Shop began the year with a variety of approximately 650 items, and during the year, had an addition of approximately 70 new items. Its quarterly sales continued to increase as the existence of the shop became a reality to the public.

GOVERNMENT INTERVENTIONS: PROJECTS EXECUTED BY GUYANA MARKETING CORPORATION

A. FAO/TCP Project entitled: Support for the enhancement of the National Agriculture Market

Information System in Guyana”

Aim: The project is aimed at enhancing the capacity of the Guyana Marketing Corporation of the Ministry of Agriculture to collect and analyse production data for non – traditional agriculture crops in a timely and consistent manner and to expand the current market information system so that it is capable of providing appropriate, reliable and timely data for detecting price movements of agriculture commodities and for identifying market opportunities for farmers, agro processors and exporters.

FAO Contribution: USD 121,000

Expected Results:

 Finalisation of Production Data Collection Strategy for Non – Traditional Agriculture Crops.  Development of a training curriculum and training of extension officers, crop reporters and price collectors.

 Establishment of a fully functional market information system which will generate: I. Price data in local markets II. Volume data for local markets III. Price data for export markets IV. Market requirements for export markets V. Crop forecasts for local production areas

The GMC website will be updated and used for delivery of the information to farmers and persons interested in marketing agricultural produce.

Activities completed:

January 2013: Dr. Fred Baker, International Consultant (Agriculture Statistics Expert) reviewed the Draft Strategy Framework for the Collection of Non Traditional Agriculture Crop Data and he met with several key stakeholders in order to assess the capability of the Ministry of Agriculture to collect production data.

April 2013: Dr. Fred Baker, International Consultant (Agriculture Statistics Expert) and Ms. Veronica Boero, Regional Statistician, held a one day stakeholders‟ consultation and a three day training exercise. The objective of the stakeholder consultation was to present the draft Strategy Framework for the Collection of Non-Traditional Agriculture (Crops) Production Data as well as the proposed methodology for the collection of the data. The main aim of the training workshop was to train persons in the collection of crop production data. As part of the training, a mini pilot survey was carried out to test the proposed methodology and determine whether it was suitable for application in

Guyana.

May 2013: Ms. Bridget Poon, International Consultant (Market Information) reviewed the current data collection procedures for export and made recommendations on the best ways to make the system more efficient. She also reviewed the Draft Strategy Framework for Production Data Collection. Additionally, the international consultant met with the Ms. Sallisha Kadir, National Consultant (Database Specialist and Website Developer), to discuss the best way of disseminate the various types of data. It was decided that a web based database would be designed by the National Consultant, following the guidelines presented by the International Consultant.

October 2013: Completion and testing of the new GMC Market Information System and linking to GMC Market and Enterprise Information System. There was also a one day training session on the operation and use of the new database.

Figure 35: FAO Consultant, Dr. F. Baker and N. Beerjit during a field exercise to test the new questionnaire

Figure 36: Participants at the Data Collectors Training Workshop

November 2013: Ms. Veronica Boero,