Some 99% of rice harvested to date

-Region Five produced highest volume  

The Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) has announced that of the 94,000 hectares of rice sown for the second crop of 2020, 99 per cent has been harvested to date.

GRDB General Manager, Mr. Nizam Hassan, in an interview with DPI on Wednesday, said the volume harvested has produced 517,338 tonnes of paddy, which is also equivalent to 336,270 tonnes of rice.

“Collectively, for the two crops, we have produced 1,052,000 tonnes with about 5,000 tonnes more projected to be harvested for the second crop, because the crop is basically complete. This year’s amount of paddy is equivalent to 685,000 tonnes of rice, compared to 682,000 in 2019,” Mr. Hassan relayed.

In 2019, 1,049,000 tonnes of paddy was harvested, he said.

Highlighting statistics for each Region, Mr. Hassan disclosed that farmers of Pomeroon-Supenaam (Region Two) have sown almost 14,149 hectares of rice and were able to reap   44,582 tonnes or 99 per cent.

In Essequibo Islands-West Demerara (Region Three), farmers harvested 100 per cent of rice sown. Approximately 9,000 hectares was harvested, producing 44,100 tonnes of paddy. That amount equates to 29,000 tonnes of rice.

Some 4,000 hectares of rice was sown by farmers in Region Four; 99.38 per cent was harvested. The areas which contributed to the regional total are Baiboo/Cane Grove and Golden Grove/Mahaica. Overall, the farmers benefited from almost 16,000 tonnes of rice.

Mahaica – Berbice (Region Five) remains the highest producing region. The district invested in 42,102 hectares of rice, which later produced 151,092 tonnes of rice.

Coming second to Region Five, East Berbice-Corentyne (Region Six) recorded 97 per cent in paddy production to date. After sowing 25,462 hectares of rice, the Ancient County produced 96,003 tonnes of rice.