NAREI’s advanced tissue culture lab set for early 2025 commissioning – Mustapha

The National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) is making a transformative leap in Guyana’s agricultural sector with the construction of a state-of-the-art tissue culture laboratory at Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara (ECD).
Tissue culture, a cutting-edge technique in agriculture, enables the growth of plant cells, tissues, or even entire plants in a controlled, sterile environment. This method facilitates the rapid multiplication of genetically uniform plants, enhances disease resistance, and ensures superior quality.
Set for completion in the first quarter of 2025, the facility is poised to revolutionise the production of high-quality, disease-resistant plantlets, meeting the growing demand for planting materials both locally and internationally.
According to Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha, this advanced laboratory is a cornerstone of the efforts to modernise Guyana’s agricultural landscape.
“We are now, because of the demands of planting material, we have 11 nurseries across this country. Eleven nurseries cannot produce the amount of planting material that people are demanding. Farmers need planting material, a couple of seeds that we are giving out, a couple of planting materials that we are giving out, cannot prepare our country to be that food hub that we want it to be”.
“So now we are building a tissue culture lab that will produce millions of planting material. By the end of the first quarter next year, I’m hoping that this tissue culture lab will be complete,” Mustapha said.
The construction of the tissue culture laboratory is part of the Sustainable Agricultural Development Project (SADP), funded through a US$15 million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
The upgraded facility will include a food-safety laboratory alongside traditional tissue culture rooms, enabling the production of planting materials that comply with international export standards.
Mustapha noted that this dual-purpose setup will significantly enhance Guyana’s ability to compete in regional and global markets.
“We have an international company that will work with us. We can produce, depends on what the farmers are planting, we can produce all the citrus plants, we can produce every type of planting material that we produce at the tissue culture lab”.
“But the most important thing, when we produce this planting material, we will produce them to be pest resistant and disease resistant. So that the spraying that you have to do, chemicals that you have to use to keep away the pests or the diseases, that will eradicate that part, will eradicate those parts. And what we have been doing also, we have been looking to increase yield, the yield that we are getting now, that we have,” he added.
First signed in 2017, the SADP was designed to drive transformative changes in Guyana’s agricultural sector, focusing on sustainable growth, increased productivity, and climate resilience.
The initiative supports small and medium-sized farmers by increasing productivity while protecting fragile ecosystems. With its multifaceted approach, the SADP seeks to fortify Guyana’s agricultural practices against climate change and improve livelihoods across the sector.