With support from the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI), farmers in Guyana are expanding their production of non-traditional food crops:

[F]armers Shawn Wynter and Tenogney Rambarose are excited about the prospects of their non-traditional crops at their respective farms in the East Berbice-Corentyne village.

One of the farmers was able to produce and sell 40 pounds of onions recently, a project for which he received support from the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI). He has also had help with marketing from major supermarkets in Georgetown.

Wynter has been into farming for a number of years after returning to Guyana from one of the Caribbean islands, where he had been working for quite some time.

He began planting some peppers and celery in his backyard. However, the market was soon flooded with the crops and the prices were not favourable, so he decided to try something different.

He started with carrots, but wasn’t getting the desired results. However, with NAREI’s help, he started to make headway, as he was taught how to grow the crop the way it should be grown.

Now he is the proud owner of a small plot of carrots–just 2½ beds–from which he expects to reap somewhere between 50 to 70 lbs of the vegetable later this week. This would be his first successful harvest of carrots and he is quite excited.

Again, with NAREI’s help, Wynter has taken the bull by the horns and ventured into many other non-traditional crops, namely: Jalapeno peppers, purple cabbage, onions, broccoli, cauliflower and a variety of pepper that yields five different colours all at once.

He wants to expand on onions, since he has already secured markets for the produce in whatever quantities he can produce. He is also encouraging others to get on board and cultivate the lands with these high-end, non-traditional crops.

Read more from the Guyana Chronicle.

[Image via: the Guyana Chronicle]