THE current persistent rainfall is having an adverse impact on seed production resulting in a significant decrease in output.
General Secretary of the Guyana Rice Producers Association (RPA), Dharamkumar Seeraj, told the Guyana Chronicle that the weather has also affected seed paddy production at the Burma Rice Research Station.
He said in this last season the Station, with a history of producing between 8,000 and 11,000 bags of seed paddy has had some difficulty with the production of seed paddy.
“For the last season we only had a production of 7, 000,” Seeraj said.
However, the RPA General Secretary said this level of production is not expected to continue come next season.
General Manager of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), Jagnarine Singh, said only that the Station has had come challenges and these are being dealt with.
The Burma Rice Research Station is located at Burma, Mahaicony, Region Five (Mahaica/ Berbice).  The departments of Research Areas, include Varietal Development (Plant Breeding), Soil Fertility and Plant Nutrition (Agronomy), Weed Management, Insect Management (Entomology), Disease Management (Pathology) and Farm Management and Seed Production.
Varietal Development addressed the development of superior rice varieties with high-rain yield, high quality, high-milling yield, blast resistance and tolerance to the major rice pests; and the maintenance of stocks of genetically pure seed of all commercial rice varieties.
The main objectives of Soil Fertility and Plant Nutrition are to ascertain the fertiliser requirements of the commercial rice varieties for optimum grain yield on the various soil types and to develop appropriate strategies for the application of these fertilizers (type, method of application, timing, rates and distribution) for efficient utilization; and to evaluate the use of available tools, soil and tissue analyses to determine and manage the nutritional needs of the rice crop.
In the area of Weed Management the main objectives are to develop integrated production systems that maximize weed establishment (Integrated weed management systems); and to evaluate herbicides for pre and early post-emergence control of a broad spectrum of rice weeds in a cost-effective manner.
The GRDB General Manager acknowledged that in all the areas of operations there will be challenges.