GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC—The Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB)says it has already surpassed its half-year target for 2024, with over 360,000 metric tonnes of rice produced in the first quarter of the year.
Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha said the GRDB has set the 2024 rice production target to approximately 710,000 metric tonnes.
“For the first half of the year, we have already surpassed our target and achieved a production of 362,030 metric tonnes,” Mustapha said.
Figures show that production also increased incrementally between 2022 and 2023. In 2022, 610,000 metric tonnes of rice were produced, while 653,710 metric tonnes were produced in 2023.
“When we look at the rice industry, we also see a lot of revenue coming in… For example, in 2023, it brought in US$212 million. For the year, almost US$127 million have already been generated by this industry,” Mustapha noted.
The GRDB said it has set a target of 750,000 tonnes for next year.
Mustapha said he believes the target would be reached based on the progressive increase in rice production.
Additionally, between 2020 and 2024 (first crop), the rice yield has increased from 5.9 tonnes per hectare to approximately 6.6 tonnes per hectare. It means that a farmer in 2020 harvested 38 bags of rice per acre, and in 2024 is getting 41 bags per acre.
“This came about because of the investment that the government has been making in the agriculture sector, especially in the rice industry,” Mustapha said.
Farmers have benefitted over the last four years from nine high-yielding rice varieties being released for commercial production, which have since boosted rice productivity and sustainability.
The latest variety of rice to be launched was biofortified rice, which was launched last year during the Agri Investment Forum and Expo in collaboration with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).
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