Agriculture contributes over 28% to Guyana’s GDP – Mustapha

… 18% growth further projected as prawn production comes on stream

With Guyana’s records a whopping 49.7 per cent economic growth for the first half of the year, the agriculture sector contributed just over 28 per cent to the overall GDP of the country.

This was according to Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha during an engagement with farmers at Onverwagt, West Coast Berbice (WCB), Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) on Saturday.
He noted that many would attribute the overall growth to the oil and gas sector, noting that while the oil and gas sector is vital for Guyana to earn revenue, what is important and how that revenue is utilised plays an important role in the country’s overall growth.
Over the past four years, the non-oil sector grew by more than 12 per cent. “So, taking out oil and gas, the economy grew by 12 per cent, and that is a tremendous achievement because when you look around the world economies are contracting,” Mustapha related.
He further highlighted growth in the local construction, mining and agricultural sectors have expanded.
For the first half of the year, agriculture contributed 28 per cent of Guyana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) but delved into the contribution of agriculture.
He reported that rice has shown an 18 per cent increase for the first half of the year. For the first six months of 2024, Guyana produced 362,000 tonnes of rice. In 2022, some 610,000 tonnes were produced and 653,000 tonnes were produced in 2023.
“We are very optometric that at the end of this year, we will surpass the target of 710,000 tonnes.”
In addition, the fishing sector grew by 27 per cent for the first half of the year. “We had the nay-sayers saying that there are issues in the fishing industry. When you look at the investment that we have made, at almost all of the landing sites we have tried to bring it to a level where the fisherfolks can enjoy basic facilities. We build sheds, we put up lights and washroom facilities. For the first time in the history of this country, those facilities are at those landing sites.
Mustapha noted that the crops castor has experienced robust growth with fruits and vegetables. On the other hand, the sugar sector would have contracted with 60,000 tonnes of sugar being produced last year.
“I am optimistic that at the end of this year, sugar will surpass last year’s production figure,” the Minister noted. He pointed out that the growth in the agriculture sector is a direct result of the budgetary allocations for the agriculture sector.
“When you see growth in the non-oil sector, when you see growth in the agriculture sector it is because of the investment your government has been making.
Meanwhile, during the meeting, nine groups received various farming implements. “We are making these available so that the people can increase production. We want Guyana to be a food hub. We are now building a food hub at Yarrowkabra on the Highway but for that hub to be successful, you the farmers will have to ramp up production in various areas. We want to produce more crops. We want you to increase production in all the traditional crops.”
He pointed out that a tissue culture lab is currently being built at the National Agriculture Research and Extension Institute (NAREI).
The agriculture minister further pointed out that despite eleven nurseries situated at different locations in the country, they are inadequate in meeting the demand from farmers for planting material.
“So, now we are building a tissue culture lab at NAREI that will produce millions of planting materials that are disease resistant and we will make planting material free of cost to the farmers – all the planting material. We are now going into new areas…”
Mention was made of corn and soya of which Guyana imports $40 million annually. Mustapha said by next year’s end Guyana should be self-sufficient in supplying all of the corn and soya needed for animal feed production.

Aquaculture
At Onverwagt production of inland prawns has commenced where ten pawns are being constructed. Each pawn will have the capacity to hold 65,000 shrimp. The shrimp should mature after six weeks and be ready for harvest.
The first set is expected to be harvested by the end of this week and President Dr Irfaan Ali is expected to be on hand to witness the casting of the first net.
“This will be a big boost for us, when you look at Latin America and Central American area, in places like Ecuador and Peru they are having large revenue coming out of the aquaculture sector. That is why when we talk about agriculture, we don’t only mean rice and sugar – we want to be leaders in all the areas including livestock production.”
On that note, the Minister said he had made available thirty rams for distribution to sheep farmers.
“We brought in several breathing animals last year which we have given to farmers already to increase their flock and bet better breeds. We brought in black belly sheep and farmers have already gotten some.
Guyana is currently leading the charge to ensure that Caricom reduces its 2023 food import bill by 25 per cent by the year 2025. As of March, this year, that bill Caricom reported that its US $5 billion food import bill had been reduced by 12 per cent.