Investments in improving drainage structures in the country’s agricultural belt are paying major dividends since heavier than usual rains have not resulted in any major flooding. Guyana’s rice industry, now rated as the second most important in the agricultural sector was one of the major beneficiaries of the improved drainage infrastructure, prospering despite the heavy rainfall to record continuously increased output during the first quarter of 2011, according to the Ministry of Agriculture’s Commodity Market Update for the first quarter of this year.
Despite the increased yield, however, the ministry said that harvested rice fell below the budgeted target for the period. Lower than targeted yield was due mainly to harvesting delays resulting from the onset of rainy weather. Some 19,993 acres of rice remain “threatened” by weather considerations while 1,144 acres are “affected,” the update says.
According to the update, the industry’s response to the perennial threat to the rice industry posed by rainy weather has seen the development by the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) of a new, tolerant rice strain which, it says, can withstand the effects of the extreme weather for up to two weeks.
The new weather-resistant strain, the ministry says, has been tried and tested and the GRDB is now working to develop four other strains.
While initiatives designed to negate the direct threat of rains to the rice crop have been successful, however, the Agriculture Ministry says that the rains continue to pose challenges associated with the conditions of access roads from rice fields. Rice farmers in Essequibo have been particularly seriously affected by degraded access to fields due to rains, with the transportation of produce being considerably hindered.
According to the update, the spring harvest is expected to yield 4.4 million bags of paddy from the acreage sown. Farmers in Region Two planted 14,000 hectares while farmers in regions Three and Four cultivated 1,000 acres and 3,000 hectares, respectively. Farmers in Region Five cultivated 28,000 hectares while 19,500 acres were sewn in Region Six.
Meanwhile, the update reports that rice exports for March this year recorded a decline of 38.07% this year when compared with the same period last year. Rice exports to regional markets dipped by 63.68% during the period under review while rice exports to Europe dropped by 34.24%. On the European market exports to Holland dropped by 93.82% while exports to Belgium declined by 89.37%.Rice exports to the United Kingdom dropped by a marginal 6.72%. Portugal benefited from a significant increase in rice purchases from Guyana during the same period.
