$46.3M seed paddy dryer, pre-cleaner for Black Bush Polder farmers

A $46.3 million 10-tonne seed paddy dryer and pre-cleaner will soon be accessible to a number of rice famers within the Black Bush Polder area in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).

The machine will assist paddy growers who are affected by high transportation cost to move their produce to the Number 56 seed processing facility.

The Ministry of Agriculture, through the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) has already awarded the contract to SuperBrix to supply, deliver and install the heavy-duty apparatus.

The GRDB has also awarded a $26 million contract to VR Construction Inc., to construct an all-weather road at Burma Rice Research Station, Region Five.

With such a thoroughfare established, farmers will spend less time travelling to their farmlands. It means that they will also have more time on hand and can double up on the amount of produce they would normally bring out daily.

An insectary will also be constructed at the Burma Rice Research Station by Monohar Services, to the tune of $23.1 million. The screen house is the primary requirement for the biological control programme for the paddy bug.

Meanwhile, Guydrones signed a $7.3 million contract with the ministry for the supply, delivery and demonstration of one agricultural drone for the research station.

The Agra T20 agriculture drone will enhance the management of pesticides like paddy bugs, optimise field management and disperse weed controls or fertiliser.

Additionally, a $17.1 million drying floor will be constructed at Somerset, Region Two, by Yudhisthir Seecharan Contracting and General Supplies.

In October 2021, the agriculture ministry, through the GRDB commissioned a $10 million drying floor at Riverstown, along the Essequibo Coast.

There, Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha, M.P, noted that once farmers make requests for these types of facilities, the government will work to facilitate them.