Guyana: The Ministry of Agriculture’s action plan to increase rice production in 2024 seems to be fulfilled in the middle of the year. The Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) has already surpassed its half-year target for 2024, with the strategies implemented by the Agriculture Ministry.
Minister of Agriculture, Guyana, Zulfikar Mustapha on Tuesday shared this update with residents of the island. He stated that this could be possible due to the committed implementation of strategies and programs within the Ministry of Agriculture.
The data shared by the Minister Mustapha during the closing ceremony of the drone technology programme reveals that throughout the first quarter of 2024, the GRDB has reported that over 360,000 metric tonnes of rice have been produced.
He further added that GRDB, at the beginning of the year, set the target of producing around 710,000 metric tonnes during 2024.
Minister Mustapha stated that in the first half of the year, Guyana had already surpassed the target and achieved a production of 362,030 metric tonnes.
It is to be noted that during the years 2022 and 2023 the production has also increased. In 2022, Guyana recorded 610,000 metric tonnes of rice production, whereas in 2023, the data states that 653,710 metric tonnes were produced.
The Agriculture Minister explained that the rice industry is generating a lot of money. In 2023, it made US $212 million, and so far, this year, the country has already made 127 million USD.
Significantly, after producing huge amounts now the GRDB is aiming at 750,000 tonnes by 2025. After witnessing progressive increase in the rice production, the minister predicts that the target will be met.
Additionally, between 2020 and 2024 in terms of the first crop, the rice yield has improved from 5.9 tonnes per hectare to 6.6 tonnes per hectare.
This can be understood as that if a farmer in 2020 harvested 38 bags of rice per acre and in 2024 he is getting 41 bags per acre. All this has been possible because of the government’s investment made in the agriculture sector, specifically in the rice industry, the agriculture minister added.
In the past four years, the farmers have witnessed the introduction of nine new high-yield rice varieties that are specifically for the commercial production. Also, these newly introduced varieties have enhanced the rice productivity and made rice farming more sustainable.
Moreover, the latest variety of rice that was launched last year during the Agri Investment Forum and Expo was the biofortified rice. It was launched in collaboration with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).
The Agriculture Minister stated that the high-yielding rice attracts better prices in the market.
