GEORGETOWN, Guyana – The Tilapia hatchery at the Timehri Prison has once again proven to be fruitful, as it has produced close to 200 pounds of red tilapias during the past few months.
According to the prison service, the initiative was undertaken by both staff and inmates of the prison, to provide another source of food for the general prison population.
The Tilapia hatchery was initiated last year, with the second large-scale batch of tilapias harvested in April this year.
Director of prisons (ag), Nicklon Elliot, said the project demonstrates the prison service’s effort in finding more ways to help prisoners develop or discover new skills and talents.
Officer-in-charge of the Timehri Prison, assistant superintendent of prisons, Roddy Denhart, said the initiative widens the scope of projects available to inmates, affording them more opportunities to develop a skill that can be used when they leave the correctional facility.
While the red tilapia hatchery is significantly contributing to the self-sufficiency of the Timehri Prison, it is also contributing to the macro goal of Guyana being food secure.
This also lends to CARICOM’s goal of reducing the region’s almost US $5 billion food import bill by 25 percent by 2025; a feat that Guyana is taking head-on, being the main driver to achieve that objective.
The Tilapia project is part of a plethora of agricultural initiatives in the prison system, which includes vegetative and poultry farming.
Just recently, the prison service harvested over 200 pounds of bora and boulanger. Additionally, the inmates reared beef and pork which resulted in 383 kilogrammes of meat and 839 trays of eggs.