Diversification, agro-processing and marketing: the solution to problems in the rice industry

Oct 07, 2025 Letters

Dear Editor,

The perennial problems in the rice industry, and agriculture in general, does not seem to have a solution in sight.

In bygone days sugar was King Sugar and enriched numerous absentee planters, who lived in Europe and never saw their plantations. Cheap labour, in the form of slavery followed by indentureship which were labour-intensive, made that possible. Then alternative sweeteners, such as beet and maple sugar, syrups, honey and other natural sweeteners reduced the demand for cane sugar which led to the end of exploitation of our forefathers. Since then, steps should have been taken to diversify the industry, preempting a dependency syndrome and waste of taxpayers’ monies.

Today the rice industry has evolved into being capital/machinery intensive. No more are the ubiquitous, poor, barefooted farmers trudging with their cutlasses, hoes and packed lunches toiling for entire days in the hot son to eke out a living. We now have combine harvesters, tractors/trailers and other equipment such as motor -blowers everywhere. Rice is not planted by hand anymore and gangs of labourers are paid to broadcast paddy and fertilisers. Some rice fields owners do not visit their fields and absentee owners, many living abroad collect their share of the sales. This is the main reasons why rice farmers are opposed to diversification which would entail their presence and attention to their crops /animals.

Juxtapose this with the glut in the world market for rice. Rice is cultivated in every continent on earth and probably consumed less due to healthy lifestyles. It is not the staple diet of many and as supply exceeds demand prices will remain low. The solution is to diversify: raise more cattle, sheep, goats, poultry; venture into aquaculture with fish and shrimp farming etc; cultivate different crops such as soybeans, moringa, citrus and others for domestic use and export. This will hopefully lower the price in our local markets. Government, through the Ministry of Agriculture, should facilitate this move with subsidies and supplies for startup. If not, as rice price remain low, the industry will become a liability and, like the sugar industry, depend heavily on bailouts.

Editor, to add value to our primary products there must be training/investment in afro-processing. Rice cereal factory alone is not sufficient. Products should be dried, preserved, converted to secondary products, packaged/canned and well presented. Belize, which is one-tenth the size of Guyana, has huge orange, grapefruit and hot pepper plantations. Concentrates from the citrus are bottled, as well as pepper sauce, and found on the shelves of supermarkets in north America, the Caribbean and other parts of the world. They also cultivate rice and sugar cane commercially without the woes experienced here. Likewise, products from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and other small countries are sold in Guyana and worldwide. Where are the reciprocal benefits after many fairs, exhibitions and expositions?

Editor, we cannot perennially lament on low rice price, make the same mistakes repeatedly and delusionally expect miracles to happen. The solution in the agriculture sector is diversification, agro-processing and marketing

Yours truly ,

Karan Chand, JP/COA

Region 2 Resident.

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agro-processing, diversification, Karan Chand, Marketing, rice industry

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