Guyana on track to achieve 2025 rice target – Minister at Agri Month launch

Guyana is on course to achieve its ambitious 2025 rice production target, with total output expected to surpass 804,000 tonnes, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha announced on Wednesday at the launch of Agriculture Month 2025.
The national observance, slated to be held under the theme “Transforming Livelihoods through Agri-Food Systems”, opened with a cultural ceremony highlighting the country’s deep agricultural traditions and its renewed focus on food security.
Minister Mustapha credited the Government’s sustained investment and the commitment of farmers across the country for the steady rise in production. Last year, Guyana set a record by producing 725,000 tonnes of rice, surpassing the 700,000-tonne mark for the first time in its history. With higher yields now being reported across cultivation areas, the Minister expressed optimism that the 804,000-tonne target for 2025 will be met.
“We produced 725,000 tonnes of rice last year. At the end of this year, I am very optimistic that we will surpass that, and we will produce the target set this year of 804,000 tonnes. We are on the way to do that. Only two days ago, I met the leadership of GRDB [The Guyana Rice Development Board], and we are seeing higher yields being produced in these areas,” Mustapha disclosed.
Back in April, Minister Mustapha had reported the country cultivated 232,000 acres of rice during the first crop for 2025. Despite this, local rice farmers have been confronted with several challenges, with the falling international rice prices topping the list.
Last month, President Dr Irfaan Ali assured rice farmers that his Administration will continue to stand with them despite falling international rice prices, which he attributed to record levels of global production and stockpiling.
He noted that major exporters such as India, Vietnam, and Brazil have all recorded bumper harvests, leaving large stockpiles to be pushed onto the global market. This oversupply, he said, has created a glut, depressing prices worldwide. By the end of August, the weighted average of global white rice export quotas had fallen to US$450 per tonne – down US$14 from July and US$228 compared to the same period last year.
Nonetheless, President Ali has ruled out any move to scale back Guyana’s rice production despite the global glut that has sent prices tumbling, insisting instead that the country must invest in adding value, storage, and new markets.
Ali explained that part of this strategy involves expanding storage capacity across every rice-producing region, giving farmers and millers more flexibility to manage their supplies. “When you want to play in a big game and have increased production, you have to have storage capacity,” he said. At the same time, he pointed to opportunities in diversifying rice use domestically through value-added processing and new product development.

Non-traditional crops
Beyond rice, Guyana has significantly expanded into non-traditional crops. Large-scale cultivation of corn and soya is underway, with the Government aiming for self-sufficiency by next year. Minister Mustapha stressed that this initiative alone could cut the import bill for corn and soya by US$40 million annually. The country has also advanced in hydroponics and high-value crop production, with increasing numbers of young people, including university graduates, entering the agricultural sector.
“We have the CARICOM Ministerial Task Force that is advising the CARICOM heads of Government on agriculture and food production. It’s being chaired by Guyana. Guyana is leading the way in reducing the food import bill and in trying to achieve the 25 by 2025 plus five initiatives. And we have seen tremendous improvement over the years.”
“We have gone into large-scale hydroponics. We have gone into high-volume crops. We have seen a number of young people now embracing agriculture. We are seeing the perception of agriculture is changing rapidly. Gone are the days when young people see agriculture as a menial activity, a job for old people, or a job for people who never went to school. Today, we are having graduates from the University of Guyana and the Guyana School of Agriculture embracing agriculture and making their livelihood out of agriculture. Those are tremendous achievements for us as a people,” the Minister said.
Guyana is also moving toward becoming a regional food hub. A major project is underway along the Linden–Soesdyke Highway, in partnership with Bloomberg Grain, to establish a modern food hub capable of supplying Caribbean markets and reducing regional import dependence. Coconut cultivation, another focus area, has expanded by 7800 acres in the past five years, with further growth planned.
As Agriculture Month 2025 gets underway, Minister Mustapha called on all stakeholders to remain united and take advantage of the opportunities being created, noting that Guyana is on the cusp of once again being the breadbasket of the Caribbean.