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Pres­i­dent Ir­faan Ali an­nounced Sat­ur­day that some 20,000 acres of new farm­land on the Es­se­qui­bo coast, Re­gion Two will be­come avail­able for small-scale farm­ers to ad­dress the long-stand­ing is­sue of high rental costs.

Ac­cord­ing to the head of state, a sig­nif­i­cant num­ber of small-scale farm­ers, es­pe­cial­ly those cul­ti­vat­ing 30 acres or less, are rent­ing land, of­ten from ab­sen­tee landown­ers or larg­er farm­ers. This was high­light­ed as one of the most press­ing is­sues for farm­ers on the Es­se­qui­bo coast.

To ad­dress this, “we are go­ing to in­vest, in the com­ing months, to open up at least 20,000 acres of land in three dif­fer­ent clus­ters here in Es­se­qui­bo,” Ali said dur­ing an en­gage­ment with farm­ers and fish­er­folk.