During a social media address, President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali highlighted that approximately 40 young people in Region Nine have already expressed interest in expanding onion cultivation, with early technical support being coordinated through agricultural extension services and emerging cluster-based arrangements.
“The facilitators are already reaching out to the Ministry of Agriculture extension office to help them to build out their capacity, help them to build out this project from a technical perspective,” the president said.
According to the president, the young onion producers will be organised into clusters where they will receive structured support, including mentorship, financial literacy training, technical guidance, and continuous monitoring from dedicated field-based credit officers and facilitators.
The model is intended to ensure that new and emerging farmers are not only financed but also actively guided through each stage of production and expansion.
“Here is where we will have large-scale farmers, we will have business leaders, religious leaders helping in the mentorship of the clusters, in the mentorship of the individuals who are going to take these loans,” the president noted.
The Guyana Development Bank will provide interest-free and collateral-free financing while also embedding a strong support framework to reduce failure rates among start-ups and small enterprises.
In the case of agricultural projects such as onion cultivation, the approach will allow farmers to scale from small plots to larger commercial production in a structured and sustainable way.