THE rice industry, like the sugar industry, was and remains a major mainstay of the national economy. Unfortunately, during the long tenure of the PNC government, the rice industry was neglected to the point of collapse and, as a result, we reached a state where cheap and poor quality rice had to be imported from South-East Asia to supply the domestic market in order to be able to satisfy our international markets.

During that time thousands of rice farmers abandoned their cultivation, consequently between 1968 and 1980 the number of rice growing families declined from 45,000 to about 23,000.

This was not surprising because there was no incentive and impetus to continue rice cultivation.
The PNC government, on assumption to power, did several things which discouraged farmers and laid the foundation for the contraction of the rice industry.

One of the first things it did was to remove the farmers from controlling the then Rice Marketing Board which was established under the PPP government.
Instead of farmers who are the producers of rice having the greater say within the board, it was the bureaucrats and hand-picked party individuals, who had little or no knowledge of rice production, who became the new bosses of the industry.

In addition, such concessions as duty free fuel and fertilisers were all removed and in one instance when the farmers protested against the ills of the industry police dogs were unleashed on them.
The Guyana Rice Producers Association (RPA), which was the bona fide representative of the rice farmers, was de-recognised and replaced by a PNC puppet organisation.

In addition, there was a rapid decline in drainage and irrigation spending.

In more recent years, the rice industry was plagued by flooding and in particular the ‘great flood’ in 2005 which created havoc with our agricultural sector, not least the rice industry.

However, because of the policies and programmes of the current government and the resilience of the farmers, the rice industry has been able to bounce back and today is rivalling the traditional backbone of the national economy – the sugar industry.

During the debate of the National Budget on Tuesday, Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud noted the success of the industry and revealed that last year the rice industry made a record production of 360,996 tonnes.

This year, the sector is projected to increase its production even further to 379,628 tonnes, a 4.9 percent increase in value added.

He noted that the vision is to have an expanded and more competitive industry.
Persaud referenced Guyana’s entry into the Venezuelan market and pointed out that the move was highly criticized.
However, he noted that now that Guyana has tapped into a new market, the intention is to develop and expand the product range; in other words, more emphasis will be placed on value added.
A major plus for the rice sector was the release of two new rice varieties, GRDB 9 and GRDB 10, and several others are currently being tested.

At the start of this month, small farmers’ groups were introduced to a special three-year financial facility of some $220M, $180M in grants and $40M in low interest loans, which would aid their growth.

Under the Rural Enterprise and Agriculture Development (READ) Project is the recently established Enterprise Development Fund (EDF), through which the support to small farmers is being provided.

Apart from these initiatives, there has been tremendous emphasis on drainage and irrigation which is an essential prerequisite for any successful agriculture programme.
In addition, the government has given duty free concessions on fuel, agricultural machinery and spares.
It is therefore not surprising that the rice industry has returned from the doldrums to one of tremendous success.