Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha has said that the rice production target for 2024 has been set at 710,000 tonnes in comparison to last year when the country produced 653,000 tonnes.
Speaking to farmers in Black Bush Polder recently, Mustapha said that the government is working to ensure that the country can produce “a lot of food.”
According to Mustapha, rice production moved from 610,000 metric tonnes in 2022 to 653,000 metric tonnes in 2023.
He said, “We want rice production to increase, rice production last year was 653,000 tonnes, this year we want to produce 710,000 tonnes, we are now in the midst of an El Nino, a dry weather condition.”
As such, Mustapha noted that there has been a paddy bug infestation affecting the rice farmers. He said that he has instructed the Guyana Rice Development Board to work closely with farmers to eradicate the same “to avoid the destruction of this because it is important that we produce maximum output this time…”
Mustapha had told farmers in the Upper Corentyne Area also that the ministry is working aggressively to put systems in place to deal with the current paddy bug infestation.
According to the information gathered, the Crabwood Creek and the Central Corentyne areas are severely affected.
Mustapha during a recent outreach to the region had said that he had met with all extension officers countrywide as they work to put systems in place. “We are trying as much as possible to put all the systems in place.”
Additionally, Mustapha said that they were looking at the possibility of aerial spraying within the affected areas, “so we are trying to deal with it.”
According to farmers, the current paddy bug infestation is one of the largest in recent years leaving them with major concerns, however, the minister had stressed that they are trying their best to eradicate it hence the entire complement of technical workers was sent to the region to work to deal with it, noting that several issues are leading to the paddy bug infestation.
He said, “I am hoping that some of the systems we have put in place are working and we have to continue to pay attention to this important issue, or else the quality of the production will not be there that we want.”
Turning his attention to the yield in rice production, Mustapha reminded that when he became Minister of Agriculture, the yield then was between 5.6 to 5.9 tonnes per hectare.
“Today, this crop I am predicting that we will reach 6.5 tonnes per hectare because we have high-yielding paddy, we have developed up better paddy variety, we have the GRDB 15, we have the GRDB 16 we have developed, we have some other high yielding rice coming to be distributed in Guyana so as long we can do that we will reach the 710,000 mark and that will continue”, he relayed.
