Minister within the Ministry of Housing Vanessa Benn today visited the Hyde Park Homestead Project at Yarrowkabra, where homes are being paired with shade houses to help single mothers produce food and earn additional income.
The visit comes amid previously reported questions about the management and productivity of the government’s wider shade house programme.
According to a ministry update, the project, conceptualised by President Irfaan Ali, seeks to combine housing with income-generating opportunities through shade house agriculture.
Benn was accompanied by Deputy Director of Community Development Ravin Singh, Senior Engineer Orlando Arno, other technical officers and Guyana Forestry Commission Special Projects Officer Ryan Dey.
The update did not state how many shade houses at Hyde Park were operational, what was being produced or whether beneficiaries had begun earning income from cultivation.
In September, the Department of Public Prosecution (DPI) reported Benn as saying that more than 75 homes had been completed at the development and over 50 beneficiaries had received allocations. She said the shade houses were intended to supply vegetables for household consumption and sale, with earnings helping families meet mortgage payments and school expenses.
At that time, a two-day training programme was being planned to help beneficiaries manage their shade houses, while agricultural agencies were expected to provide technical assistance and support with market access.
The project was formally launched in January, when the first 27 homes were allocated to women. Stabroek News reported that each package cost $7 million, inclusive of land, a two-bedroom house and a 20-by-20-foot shade house. The homes also included two 450-gallon water tanks.
The development involves collaboration between the housing and agriculture ministries and Duravilla Homes, which is responsible for construction. Its first block was designed to accommodate 112 housing units.
The wider national shade house programme, however, has faced questions about whether facilities are functioning and delivering the promised benefits.
In a June 29 report, Kiskadee Watch noted that the Agriculture Ministry had reported approximately 1,000 shade houses in operation as of May, but information about their locations and production remained unclear. Questions put to Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha about construction, expenditure, operational facilities and monitoring arrangements had not elicited a response at the time of publication. Attempts to contact the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute were also unsuccessful.
The report followed visits by APNU parliamentarians Sherod Duncan and Vinceroy Jordan to Moruca, where they reported finding abandoned shade houses at Ko-Ko and Haimaruni. Duncan said there were dried seedlings, idle tools and unattended irrigation equipment. Region One Chairman Brentnol Ashley told Kiskadee Watch that he was gathering information before commenting on the facilities.
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