Georgetown : Rice production to date have surpassed the 500,000 tonnes that were targeted for the entire 2013.
Agriculture Minister Dr Leslie said “On Monday the 21st October, for the first time in our history, we reached a goal which many persons in this country said would be impossible, and those who believe it was possible thought that it would not happen till 2020. On the 21st October 2013, Guyana surpassed 500,000 tonnes of rice in our production,” the Minister announced.
At present, the current rice production is 514,000 tonnes, but there is about six to seven percent of the cultivated land yet to be harvested. Expectations are now high that the country can reach the 600,000 – tonne mark, the Agriculture Minister said.
“Indeed I would say to everyone that should we be able to find the markets, not the market that would take our rice, because we have enough people who want our rice, but the markets that would pay us the price we want for our rice, then we can reach 600,000 tonnes within the next year or maximum two years,” the Minister said.
Meanwhile the Minister noted that this massive achievement by the farmers came not as a result of increased acreage, but as a result of higher yields. “We consistently now surpass five tonnes per hectares, that used to be another magical goal that we are now reaching routinely, and we believe that we can reach six tonnes per hectares.”
The agriculture ministry is working towards that, “because if we can do that, that is another 100,000 tonnes without adding more land, and that would mean that our cost of production would go right down and allow us to compete with other countries on the world market,” the Minister said.
New rice varieties and management strategies such as the six-point practices have been credited for higher yields of rice.
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