Guyana’s rice industry assuming increasingly critical role in local economy, filling region’s food security gaps

Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha

Guyana is targeting the ‘topping’ the 710,000 tonnes’ rice production target of set in the country’s 2024 budget, an accomplishment that will provide an encouraging measure of assurance in circumstances where the rice industry is challenged to both meet domestic consumption needs as well as to shoulder its responsibility to the wider regional needs in the context of helping to meet the food security challenges facing the wider Caribbean.

Recently released official information on the state of the rice sector ‘tags’ Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha as saying that the local rice industry can indeed accomplish that goal given performance indicators that are emerging from the sector at this time. The minister’s observation was reportedly made during a community engagement at Number 10 Village, Region Five, on Tuesday.