Field Officers of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) and the Guyana Rice Producers Association (RPA) at Anna Regina have started a series of sensitisation programmes along the Essequibo Coast to educate farmers on how to monitor, control and effectively manage paddy bugs. Reports reaching the Guyana Chronicle said the field officers held five plot demonstrations at Somerset and Berks, Sparta, Bush Lot, Cullen and Hybonnia, where scores of farmers gathered and actively participated in discussions over the last weekend.
Reports said the Region Two rice crop is doing well and is not heavily infested with paddy bugs. However, farmers are being prepared in the event of a sudden increase in the bug population.
Reports said the increase in paddy bug presence may be due to the current weather conditions.
Field officers of the RPA, GRDB, in the region are constantly in the field monitoring the presence of paddy bugs.
Some 32,500 acres are currently under cultivation across the Essequibo Coast. Fields are in different stages of growth, and most are in bearing stages.