Agri. Ministry working to resuscitate rice production at Santa Fe

Mar 29, 2021 News

Kaieteur News – Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha recently announced that his Ministry is aiming to resuscitate rice cultivation at the Santa Fe mega farm in Region Nine, as Government moves apace to double rice production within the next five years.

Minister Zulfikar Mustapha

Minister Mustapha, while visiting the farm during a recent two-day outreach to the North Rupununi Region noted that Government was able to increase its quota for rice being shipped to Brazil through Guyana’s current bilateral trade pact-Partial Scope Agreement.
He added that with Santa Fe being located closer to Brazil, it would be economically viable to resume cultivation there.
“Santa Fe has a rice mill and thousands of acres specifically for rice cultivation. In the past, the farm was able to produce rice which was sold to Brazil. This was done through upland rice cultivation which is a system that our neighbours in Brazil, who on similar soil, has been able to enjoy over 30 years of success in this type of cultivation,” the Minister said.
With irrigation being a challenge in the area, the Minister also announced that the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) will soon commence work to ensure a resumption of rice cultivation and agricultural operations at the farm.
The subject Minister added that apart from rice, the Ministry will also continue to give technical support to the farm to improve its crops and livestock operations, with plans discussed to embark on a large-scale corn cultivation.
General Manager (GM) of the Santa Fe farm, Yolanda Vasconcellos said that the farm is currently involved in a wide range of agricultural operations.
The GM said, “We currently have 29,000 acres of land being utilized for agricultural purposes. We do livestock, crops, and aquaculture. We currently have a variety of orchard crops and other fruits like watermelons, peanuts, cassava, papaw, tomatoes, ochro, and pineapples under cultivation. We also cultivate a number of vegetables and seasonings like eschalot. We also have improved pastures as well as 8000 acres for rice.”
She added, “We also have a growing cattle herd. So far, we have 460 animals. We’ve imported several breeding bulls like the Texas Long Horn and so on. That is to improve the breeds within the communities here. We’ve also done that with the Arabian Horses. They breed with the local animals and have adapted well to the climatic conditions here. We can also process corn so that’s another crop that we propose to get into.”
With Guyana spending almost US $25 million annually on feed for the livestock industry, government had announced that special incentives would be given for large-scale cultivation of corn and soya-bean. The budget also saw the removal of value-added tax (VAT) from agriculture machinery, fertilizers, agrochemicals, and pesticides, making it more feasible for such investments.
Santa Fe was established back in 2010 and currently has 12 full-time employees. However, more villagers are employed when the farm has other projects like planting and harvesting ongoing.