Rice farmers urged to embrace agro-business diversification

President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali on Wednesday unveiled ambitious plans to transform Guyana’s rice industry, focusing on agro-business diversification and expanding storage capacity as key measures for long-term sustainability.

Speaking to rice farmers at the Skeldon Estate in Region Six, President Ali said the government intends to introduce high-value alternatives alongside traditional rice cultivation.

“I’m going to bring in experts from around the world to see how, in every 10 acres, we can convert one acre into an alternative crop,” the president said.

He added: “Whether we do cage farming for crab, which has a high value and big market, we can put a processing plant to handle the crab meat. For every 10 acres of rice farm, we aim to have one acre of high-yielding production. We are going to invest to help you do this. That is what is called agro-business diversification.”

The president also stressed that building storage facilities has become a national priority amid global rice market volatility.

“In all of the rice-producing regions, we now have to build storage capacity. The government will also stockpile. We must have the national capacity to stockpile maybe five million tonnes of rice because we want rice to succeed. We want you to continue planting, and we want to continue investing in better varieties to increase yields, so the appropriate infrastructure must be in place to support these investments,” he said.

Ali acknowledged the pressures facing the rice sector, citing falling global prices, oversupply, dumping, bumper crops worldwide, and delayed export payments.

“It is a very complex environment we are operating in, and as government, we are trying to navigate through that programme,” he added.

He reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to rice producers.

“Let me be clear. There is only one honest representative of rice farmers in the history of this country, and that is the People’s Progressive Party. The rest will try to use you politically. Do not allow yourselves to be used. We are going to work with you because we genuinely want you to succeed,” Ali said.