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Harvesting second rice crop almost over

Dec 07, 2009 News

BENGAL FARM, CORENTYNE – Harvesting of the 2009 autumn rice crop is to wrap up by this weekend. A low yield is one of the major issues and this is mainly as a result of the high ‘red rice’ infection, the samples at the different mills reflect that the ‘red rice’ affected between 12 per cent and 14 percent of the crop.
President of the Guyana Rice Producers’ Association, Leeka Rambrich, said that in the frontlands (areas from Crabwood Creek to New Forest along with East and West Canje, the East Bank of Berbice and New Amsterdam), 29,992  acres were sown and up to Friday 29,675 were harvested.
The yield from this harvest so far is 750,777 bags of paddy.
In Black Bush Polder 16,988 acres were sown and 16,950 were harvested for 430,649 bags.
“This is very bad when compared to the yield of the first crop this year which saw 29 bags per acres across Region Six,” Rambrich said.
Mr. Rambrich described the ‘red rice’ problem as a national one though it does not occur every season. The ‘red rice’ grows together with the regular rice but when it is ready to flower or bear it goes beyond the regular rice and bears on top. It kills the regular rice and takes over the field.
When it ripens it does not stay on the ball (stem) for too long, it falls off and ends up back in the field. When harvesting, half of it enters the combine and the remainder falls to the ground.
The ‘red rice’, though fit for human consumption, is of a low grade and as the name suggests, red in colour.
According to Mr. Rambrich, the Guyana Rice Producers’ Association and the Guyana Rice Development Board are conducting experiments at the Burma Research Station to identify new technology to have power over the ‘red rice’. He is optimistic that within another few crops, there would be effective ways of controlling it.
This second crop saw 46,980 acres of rice under cultivation thus satisfying the cultivation target. It represents a 511 acre increase when compared to the first crop (Spring Crop).. Meanwhile, preparation for the 2010 spring crop has already commenced. The target is 47,000 acres and so far 2,350 acres have been sown in East Berbice/Corentyne – 1,310 in Front Lands and the remainder in Black Bush Polder.
Also 22,479 have been ploughed in the frontlands and 15,211 in Black Bush Polder. A further 4,163 acres across Region Six have already been flooded but not planted.

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