THE recently commissioned paddy seed processing plant at No. 56 Village, Corentyne, Region Six, is ready to clean and inoculate 300 bags of paddy per hour, and will provide high-quality seed paddy for the region’s rice farmers.Special Assistant to Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo in Region Six, Mr Gobin Harbhajan, told the Guyana Chronicle that the facility will produce seeds which will enable farmers to obtain denser seedling emergence after sowing, and subsequently lead to increased production of paddy through higher yields per acre, with higher profitability per crop.

Mr Harbhajan said that, apart from the establishment of this facility to make high quality seed paddy available, an additional benefit for all on the Corentyne, especially motorists, is that farmers would no longer have to resort to using sections of the public highway to dry paddy after harvesting.

Harbhajan said: “This practice by farmers used to cause traffic issues and accidents, some of them fatal. Drying of paddy on the road will now no longer be necessary.”

He said he has been assured that the processing plant, being run by the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), will be fully available to farmers, who are expected to begin harvesting the spring crop by early March this year.

Mr Harbhajan made the comments following a recent visit to the new plant in his capacity as Special Assistant to the Prime Minister. The paddy seed plant was established by the Government of Guyana under the Agriculture Support Services Programme (ASSP) funded by the Inter- American Development Bank (IDB).

The ASSP lasted from 2002 to 2015, and the plant was finally commissioned in May last year. The GRDB staff at the facility comprises five quality control officers, five extension officers, and 11 other technical personnel.

Operational Head of the Facility, Mr Narine, disclosed that the facility will dry seed paddy to the required moisture at which the commodity can be safely stored without damage and other problems related to high moisture content in paddy.

This will be useful for varieties which have to pass through a period of dormancy before they can be ready for germination and sowing.

Mr Narine said the paddy seed plant will also clean seeds by separating full grains from “wind paddy” and separating paddy varieties, which may have gotten mixed up during harvesting, so as to prevent this harmful mix from getting back into the fields in subsequent crops.

Among other services, the plant will inoculate the seeds by means of chemical treatment, to protect them after sowing from early crop pests such as the leaf miner and the water weevil.

Mr Harbhajan said he has been assured that these services to the rice farmers will be provided at a minimal cost. He added that he had been very impressed with the management and staff structure at the facility, as well as the work of the GRDB’s liaison officers in the region.