Govt targeting over 800,000 tonnes of rice in 2025 – Mustapha

…blasts APNU/AFC for ‘callous’ actions against farmers in 2015 – 2020

The plans to surpass 800,000 tonnes of rice this year, a feat that if achieved would make 2025 the single most successful year in Guyana’s rice sector.
During his budget presentation on Tuesday, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha revealed that the Government’s 2025 target for the rice sector is more 804,000 tonnes. He also revealed that so far in the Mahaica Mahaicony Abary (MMA) scheme in Region Five (Mahaica/Berbice), over 100,000 acres of rice have been planted.

“Over the last four years, we saw rice production peak at 725,000 tonnes. I am very optimistic, this year, that we’ll increase rice production to over 804,000 metric tonnes. This year alone, this crop alone, we’ve already cultivated 235,000 acres. For the first time in the history of this country and the MMA scheme. This time around the MMA scheme is cultivating 101,000 acres of rice,” Mustapha said.
Mustapha also came armed with testimonies from rice farmers in the MMA scheme, who lost their lands under the former coalition Government. Back in 2016, the then A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government had canceled the leases of a number of farmers in Berbice.
It took rulings from the High Court and Court of Appeal to reverse these revocations and declare the then Government’s actions unconstitutional. The Agriculture Minister read the testimonies of some of these farmers, noting that they learned their leases were canceled from the newspaper.
“Hear this testimonial. I, Harold H. Booker of lot 35 Seafield, West Coast Berbice (WCB), am a rice farmer who devoted over 20 years to cultivating rice to sustain my family. I am a husband and father to four children and our very survival depended on the livelihood that rice farming provided.”

“Mr Speaker, in 2014 MMA/ADA granted land in our village for farming, allowing us to work the soil and provide for our families. I was allocated 10 acres of state land. However, on March 18, 2016, they didn’t have the respect to send a notice to these people. A notice was published in the Stabroek News revealing that our lease was revoked by the MMA,” the Minister said.
According to him, this farmer was forcibly removed from the land and had to find alternative means of employment. This, according to Mustapha, is the legacy of the former Government.
“That’s the legacy of the APNU/AFC. The young people must know these things. Poor farmers who were toiling the land to make a living for their families, the land was taken away by the callousness of the APNU/AFC.”
“Mr Speaker, the decision to cancel my lease came without warning and the pressure placed on us was immense. We were forcibly removed from the land, that was our source of hope and sustenance,” the Minister added.
Guyana’s rice sector broke records last year, with Minister Mustapha revealing at his end of year press conference that 725,282 tonnes of rice was produced in 2024. The increased overall production also came with an increased average national yield of over 6 tonnes per hectare.
According to Mustapha, this constituted an increase from the 5.7 tonnes per hectare yield in 2020 to the 6.6 tonnes in 2024. He further explained that there has been an incremental increase in rice production over the past four years- 559,789 tonnes in 2021; 610,595 tonnes in 2022 and 653,706 tonnes in 2023.
Among the areas in which the Government has been supporting the industry, is through the provision of training. Mustapha had revealed that over 5,000 farmers were trained by Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), in more efficient farming practices.
Then there are the new varieties of rice being developed, such as the GRDB-18 which has a yield potential of 7-9 tonnes per hectare, that was launched a few months ago. Mustapha explained that since 2020, three new varieties of rice were released.
Also last year, the Agriculture Ministry secured a massive achievement when it was able to hand over to 29 farmers and 9 millers in Region Two, (Pomeroon-Supenaam), $437 million in money owed to them from rice exported to the Panama market over six years ago.
This payment formed part of the $1.5 billion recovered by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government to compensate farmers and millers affected by a flawed arrangement initiated in 2018 under the previous APNU/AFC Administration. (G3)