GUYANA has taken a major step towards advancing sustainable agriculture, by commissioning its first biotechnology plant-tissue culture laboratory that was inaugurated on Tuesday by Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha.

The state-of-the-art facility, established with an investment of approximately $450 million, represents a key component of the government’s broader agenda to modernise and strengthen the agricultural sector.

Delivering the feature address at the commissioning ceremony, Minister Mustapha emphasised that the government continues to prioritise agriculture as a cornerstone of Guyana’s non-oil economy.

He noted that the sector has recorded steady growth in recent years, contributing significantly to GDP expansion, job creation, and export diversification.

“Over time, this increases the national supply of key crops such as plantains, pineapples, citrus, and root crops, which will strengthen domestic food security and sustain the local agro-processing industries, such as fruit processing, packaging and export,” Minister Mustapha explained.

Developed in collaboration with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) of India and financed through the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) under the Sustainable Agricultural Development Programme (SADP), the laboratory is expected to transform the country’s crop-production capabilities.

The facility is designed to produce over one million plantlets annually, a significant leap from the previous output of 15,000.

These plantlets will be clean, high-yielding, and disease-free, supporting crops such as pineapple, citrus, plantain, sweet potato, breadfruit, sugarcane, and even exotic fruits such as strawberries and blackberries.

The biotechnology lab marks a major milestone in Guyana’s efforts to enhance food security, agricultural innovation and sustainable economic growth, laying the foundation for a more resilient and diversified agricultural future.