Rice industry exceeded expectations in 2011

Oct 01, 2011 News

Under the theme “Sustaining food and nutrition security in Guyana”, Agriculture Month 2011 will be launched today. Focus is being placed on displaying levels of accountability in relation to commitments made to farmers and other stakeholders.
At a press briefing in the Ministry’s boardroom on Thursday, Agriculture Minister, Robert Persaud, explained that many achievements have been recorded in the rice sector. This is testimony to the fact that in terms of trading, variety, services, milling and other marketing initiatives, the objectives stated in the PPP/C manifesto of 2006 have been exceeded particularly in relation to production where the industry closes this year having the highest production ever.
“In terms of providing support to farmers we were very modest in the 2006 manifesto but we have exceeded this tremendously in different packages. The $400M rice relief programme we had where all rice farmers benefitted including the use of infrastructure and then there was a wide range of other interventions.”
The sugar industry was also highlighted as one of the most notable achievements and this includes the completion of the sugar factory at Skeldon which has been commissioned and is operational not withstanding the fact that there were some “issues” that had to be cleared up.
Kaieteur News was told that another mentionable successful venture was the finalization of the national adaptation strategy which deals with the European Union (EU) and the price cut. The strategic blueprint was approved by the EU in January of 2009.
Persaud admitted in terms of the cost of production, efforts are being made but not to the level that the relevant authorities wish it to be.
“One area we have not been able to achieve is the matter of refinery because we have been working with investors and a number of them have submitted proposals so much so that a company out of Mexico is currently engaged in discussions with GuySuCo. But we have been able to commission the Enmore Packaging Plant also.”
This newspaper understands that discussions on ethanol have been advanced and today a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will be finalized with a major company in CARICOM.
“The same can be said for fisheries particularly in the area of aquaculture, and as we speak we are going to penetrate new markets in terms of aquaculture, looking at arrangements today (yesterday) morning in place targeting export markets because we have seen aquaculture activities increase by 50 percent in the last year”
The launch of the Mangrove Teachers’ Manual is expected to kick start the month of activities on October 3 at 10:00hrs at the Ministry’s Boardroom.

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Rice industry exceeded expectations in 2011

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