Guyana’s agriculture sector is rapidly developing at a pace with some 225,000 acres of rice expected to be cultivated countrywide during the first crop of 2025.
This was revealed by Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha during the commissioning ceremony of a new pump station in Region Five last Saturday.
Minister Mustapha described the expectant crop yield as “recording-breaking,” given that Guyana has not cultivated such acreage within such a period.
“The first rice crop of 2025 comprises the cultivation of approximately 100,000 acres of rice (for Region Five). That would be a record-breaking cultivation…I don’t know when was the last time we cultivated such acres of rice,” the minister stated.
He noted that this achievement is a result of the massive investment that the government continues to make in the agriculture sector.
Since the return of the PPP/C government in 2020, the agriculture ministry has managed to introduce three new rice varieties.
These include the GRDB IICA 17, also known as the bio-fortified rice, GRDB 16 and GRDB 18.
These rice varieties have a yield potential between seven to nine tonnes per hectare.
In 2024, Guyana produced 725,282 metric tonnes of rice, breaking the 700,000 mark that was initially catered for.
This astonishing amount of rice has never been produced in Guyana since the country started to cultivate rice.
Guyana cultivates rice in five main regions namely Regions Two, Three, Four, Five and Six.
These regions have and will continue to play an incremental role in the country’s rice production.
Meanwhile, $430.9 million has since been set aside for rice in the 2025 budget recently announced in the National Assembly.
Overall, $104.6 billion has been budgeted for the sector. This is an approximate six per cent increase compared to the 2024 budget where $97.6 billion was allocated for agriculture.
Since the return of the PPP/C government, Guyana has managed to take back its position as the lead country for agriculture in CARICOM. (Department of Public Information)
