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Amerindian village now planting rice
This was what the rice fields in Moco Moco, Region Nine, looked like back in July. It is ready for harvesting.
– 82 acres being harvested in pilot project
In what is being described as a first for Guyana, a major project to grow rice in the Rupununi Savannahs, is literally reaping success, officials say.
Some 82 acres of land in Moco Moco with another 12 acres of beans were planted earlier this year.
Now the rice is ready to be harvested and it is estimated that there could be up to 30 bags of paddy harvested from one acre, a really good yield for the first time.Guyana, in collaboration with the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development, through the Ministry of Agriculture’s Guyana Rice Development Board, launched the Hinterland Rice and Beans Project last December, dedicating it to the memory of former Minister within the Ministry of Education, Dr Desrey Fox.
The project, once successful, was intended to be replicated in several other hinterland communities in the Rupununi including Karauaranau, Awarawaunau and Quarria-designed to reduce residents’ dependency on food from other regions.
“It is clear that the success of this project can be used as a model in other hinterland communities,” Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, said yesterday.
Persaud and Amerindian Affairs Minister, Pauline Sukhai, are due to visit Region Nine today to witness the harvesting.
Some $78M would have been spent with a harvester, tractor, building and other equipment handed over to the project.
Already, representatives of the Amerindian villages are being trained to use the harvester with the intention that these very trainees will be operating the machinery by the next crop.
The mill established there as well as the tractors and other equipment will all be operated by villagers who were heavily involved in planting the paddy seeds and applying fertilizers.
Government officials are already in the area working with the villagers to identify markets for the beans and best ways of reinvesting revenue.
Following the harvesting, the pilot project will then be replicated in other Amerindian communities within two years.
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