AS GOVERNMENT continues to push for research and development in the rice sector, local rice farmers continue to do their part by pushing the national production average closer to 40 bags of paddy per acre, for the first crop of 2018.

According to a Ministry of Agriculture press statement, the national average has increased by 10 bags per acre for the corresponding period over the past few years.
Rice farmers across the country have expressed delight and satisfaction with the work and dedication of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), through its research and extension services.

The board’s most recent report which was completed at the end of May 2018 has indicated, that rice farmers produced 495,000 tonnes of paddy so far for the first crop of 2018.
This quantity is expected to exceed 500,000 tonnes by the completion of the remaining two per cent to be harvested.

GRDB General Manager Nizam Hassan, has said that Region Four continues to stand out, with farmers there producing almost seven tonnes of paddy per hectare.
“A comparison of lands cultivated during the first crop last year revealed that for the first crop this year, farmers cultivated in excess of 2000 acres less, and still realised a yield that almost matches that of the 2017 first crop figures. So far, these increased yields have been rewarded at the mills with farmers supplying G $17.2B worth in paddy. This is one billion dollars more in earnings than what farmers received for the first crop in 2017 when 2000 more acres were harvested,” Hassan pointed out.

The GRDB’s report also noted that in Region Two, of the 13,484 hectares harvested farmers there got a yield of 5.9 tonnes per hectare, while in Region Three, the yield was 5.49 tonnes per hectare and in Region Five it was 5.9 tonnes per hectare with five per cent of the lands still to be harvested.

Region Six recorded yields of 5.7 tonnes per hectare with just two per cent of lands still to be harvested.
Notwithstanding the increasing costs of production farmers have expressed confidence that the industry is progressing.

While a small percentage of the farmers are still to harvest 43 per cent of the country’s paddy, many farmers have already started to sow for the second crop.
According to Hassan, the predictions are that approximately 89,000 hectares will be cultivated overall. So far, nearly 53,000 acres have already been sown.

“With farmers across the country planting the newest high-yielding variety, GRDB 15, the board anticipates that the farmers will again be moving the national average in the right direction come the second harvest of 2018,” Hassan added.