–Region Two records highest yield

By Cassandra Khan
OWING to favourable weather and effective farm management, rice farmers across Guyana have been able to maintain a good rate of harvesting.
According to information from the Ministry of Agriculture, harvesting across the country for the first crop is 77 per cent complete, with 5,369,720 bags of paddy being harvested at a rate of 5.5 tonnes per hectare.
A breakdown of all the rice-producing regions showed that harvesting in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) recorded the highest percentage of harvested rice — 88 per cent. Of the 32,144 acres of rice lands sown, 28,231 acres have already been harvested, producing 886,097 bags of paddy at a rate of 4.9 tonnes per hectare.
In Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), the rice harvesting percentage stood at 77.5 per cent. Of the 17,132 acres of rice lands sown, 13,276 acres have already been harvested to produce 413,315 bags of paddy at a rate of 5.2 tonnes per hectare.
Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), with the second highest percentage of harvested rice, 84 per cent, produced 314,255 bags of paddy at a rate of 6.9 tonnes per hectare. Of 8,476 acres sown, 7,148 acres have been harvested.
In Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), 75,778 acres of rice lands were sown, with 54,172 acres already harvested to produce 1,767,870 bags of paddy at a rate of 5.1 tonnes per hectare. Harvesting in that region stood at 71.5 per cent.
Meanwhile, in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), of the 63,414 acres of rice lands sown, 49,427 acres have been harvested producing 1,988,184 bags of paddy at a rate of 6.3 tonnes per hectare. Harvesting in the region is 78 per cent complete.
According to figures provided by the Ministry of Agriculture, between January and March 2022, Guyana’s thriving rice industry raked in approximately US$37,022,500, an equivalent of more than GY$7.7 billion in export earnings.
It was explained that those earnings were derived from the exportation of approximately 49,304 tonnes of rice and rice products during the first quarter of 2022. Importantly, export revenues from rice are expected to grow even more, since many farmers across the country are still harvesting paddy from the year’s first rice crop, which commenced with countrywide sowing in November 2021.
At that time, the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) had projected a bumper harvest, with most of the rice-producing regions being on target with their sowing.
National sowing projections for the current crop were pegged at an overall target of 227,240 acres.
Last year, even with massive floods, the rice industry was still able to remain afloat, earning export revenues totaling GY$42.2 billion, an equivalent of US$201 million, resulting from the exportation of approximately 434,535 tonnes of rice, paddy and its by-products.
In 2021, the industry also benefitted from increased markets, as the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government successfully secured the British Virgin Islands (BVI), and the European nations of Estonia and Slovenia as lucrative buyers of Guyana’s top-notch rice produce.
The country was also able to solidify a standard rice supply agreement with sister country, Barbados, to ensure that the island-nation has a steady supply of the staple.
Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha had previously said that ongoing developments in the rice industry signal an even wider space for industry growth in 2022.
“We now have close to about 42 countries where we are exporting rice and we are looking to improve on that,” Minister Mustapha had previously told the government’s Department of Public Information.
Although the May 2021 floods devastated thousands of households and destroyed hundreds of hectares of farmlands, government’s $7.8 billion flood-relief programme was enough to enable the majority of affected rice farmers to return to their fields and resume production.
In January of this year, as part of the government’s landmark $552.9 billion budget, additional recovery mechanisms and measures were included, and these are expected to serve as a springboard for further advancement of Guyana’s rice industry.
For 2022 alone, the rice industry is projected to ‘cop’ earnings in the vicinity of US$288.6 million, an equivalent of more than GY$60.3 billion.