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 analyze 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 2014: Ms. Bridget Poon, International Consultant (Market Information) embarked on her second mission where she upgraded the FAO Agrimarket to the 2011 version. The software was installed on four computer systems. Additionally, Ms. Poon held a two day training session with four GMC staff members where they were trained on how to effectively use the new version of the software.

March – July 2014: Efforts were made by GMC to complete the assigned activities as stipulated in the workplan, with assistance from NAREI. These activities included: compiling a list of large farmers, classification of Enumeration Districts (EDs) in 3 categories: High density nontraditional crops farms, medium density

and low density.

August 2014: Ms. Boero provided a survey design for the execution of the Survey, 24 Enumeration Districts were selected, which included 1,582 households and approximately 800 farms.

November 2014: Execution of Pilot Survey in Region 5 to test the new survey design that was recommended by Ms. Veronica Boero.

December 2014: Handing over of 4 Desktop Computers to help GMC to enhance their Data Management Capabilities in order to provide timely

data to stakeholders.

Figure 34: Screenshot of GMC Market Information System

Figure 35: Handing over of Computers from FAO to Ministry of Agriculture