Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha has confirmed with Guyana Standard that exports from the rice industry earned $42B last year, thereby reinforcing its position as an important pillar in the economy. 
In 2022, Mustapha said there was an increase in paddy production by 9% which translates to the production of 610,595 tonnes of rice. He said, “This is a testament to our rice farmers being steadfast against the challenges of the May-June floods of 2021 and the supply chain challenges. For farmers, the government has been working aggressively to reduce the cost of production by making available over GYD $900 million worth of fertilizers free of cost to 5,160 rice farmers.”
He said one would recall that under APNU+AFC rice production started to decline and less acreage came under cultivation. He said this was due to the fact that farmers were faced with bankruptcy and could not afford to service their loans at the banks.
Through prudent fiscal and monetary policies, Mustapha said his ministry has seen, just with a comparison of June 2019 and June 2022, growth in credit to the agriculture sector of $4.3 billion. He said this was principally driven by the increased lending of $3 billion for paddy production.
Mustapha said this tells of the confidence in the nation’s rice farmers.
In 2023, he said farmers are slated to cultivate 170,040 hectares of rice to yield an increase in production, to 652,103 metric tonnes.
Mustapha said the rice industry is therefore expected to grow significantly by 8.3% in 2023. He was also keen to remind that there is a target to position the rice industry to continue its upward trajectory to achieve 1,000,000 tonnes of rice by 2025.
He said this increase will be propelled by increasing land for cultivation and farm-to-market roads, introducing higher-yielding varieties, improving crop husbandry management, improving drainage and irrigation systems, and expanding market access.
