One of the first hydroponic shade houses constructed in 2012 was at the State House at the request of the First Lady of Guyana. She has started a campaign to have gardens in schools, as well as in ordinary households, and she wanted to show students the hydroponic system. See above the video footage from the Capitol news report showing the launching of her hydroponic shade house project where she speaks about the benefits of growing your own food and encourages persons to take up family farming.
Over the years hydroponic shade houses have slowly taken hold in Guyana .The 4 year Guyana Hydroponic Shade House USD $1.35M Inter American Development bank and Japanese Trust Fund project is being implemented by the Partners of the Americas Guyana Branch and The Caribbean Self Reliance International .The objectives of the project are to improve the community economic welfare and growth of vulnerable and disadvantaged men,women and young people.
The training period lasted from July 2013 -March 2014 and succeeded in training 551 people in hydroponics and established the same number of home based gardens. 32 additional shade houses have been constructed across Guyana according to the shade house production projects manager Mr Kelvin Craig said.He highlighted in his remarks that during the second phase of the project there would be further involvement of partners and beneficiaries in the project. Phase two will also take the project to other regions and Communities in Guyana including Linden.
The Guyana Minister of Culture Dr Leslie Ramsammy was pleased with the success of the project and "Pointed out that shade houses in Guyana are the best in the Caribbean and he urged farmers not to see farming as something poor people do but as an investment in the country's economy " He also called for record keeping by farmers to be improved so that their production can grow . He encouraged farmers to register their farms to be eligible to produce for the export market and spoke briefly about submitting a Tracibility and animal welfare bill to the attorney generals office.These bills Will allow the government to be able to trace produce from farm to plate and to better govern how animals are kept and slaughtered. The minister further emphasized the need for the grow more food campaign to continue throughout Guyana to encourage more citizens to grow their own food.
Suzy Wong, a beneficiary of the training, urged all to take advantage of the project. She said, it is a good initiative, since hydroponic farming utilizes a small space and less physical work. Juliet Munian, of Essequibo, who said she had been farming bananas for the past 30 years, said she started hydroponic farming out of a need for fresh vegetables for her family. And Gerond Roberts, Toshao of Bethany Mission on the Supenaam River, said the introduction of hydroponic farming has lit up that community. He said 25 persons have built shadehouses. “We want our community to diversify in agriculture,” Roberts said, before adding that land space is not an issue in his community. He said he started with containers but now he has expanded to boxes. (Taken from Stabroek News Article Online Shadehouse project aims to lift poor communities by Staff writer on March 13,2014).All the plants in the hydroponic project have been produced in substrate soil,coconut fiber,rice paddy ,charcoal ,sponge and styrofoam and are depicted in the photos below.They are even growing in an old sneaker!!
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