Over 72,000 acres of rice under cultivation in Reg 6 – Regional Chairman

Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) has set a new record for the number of acres under rice cultivation, according to Regional Chairman David Armogan who pointed out that for the first time, a total of 72,277 acres of rice is under cultivation.
This is an increase of 5277 acres over the first crop this year which was the previous regional record.
“Lots of people are into rice cultivation and this is because at Cookrite Savanah more lands have been converted into rice cultivation as well as on the East Bank of Berbice where quite several persons are also engaged in rice production,” the Regional Chairman told the RDC meeting on Thursday.
For the current crop, 4,200 acres of rice have already been harvested in the region as harvesting continues. “From the 4,200 acres harvested farmers are getting forty bags per acre which is an increase from the last crop.”

For the first crop of 2024, farmers got an average of 38 bags of paddy per acre. In Crabwood Creek (CWC) about 10 per cent of the rice has been harvested while all access dams have been rehabilitated and are in good condition for farmers to use.
The Chairman pointed out that the doors to some of the sluices for irrigation canals in CWC need repair. Some of the canals there also need to be cleaned. Armogan noted that there had been a decline in paddy bug infestation throughout the region.
For the first crop of 2024, the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) estimated that $4 billion was lost due to paddy bug infestation. The board attributed that to higher temperatures at the end of the first crop of 2024, the Ministry of Finance said in its Mid-Year report.
It also claimed that 10-25 per cent of the paddy sold to the mills was affected by the paddy bug but Armogan said farmers will have to continually spray to keep the insects under control.
“Right now, we are in the process of making dams through the Ministry of Agriculture and the Drainage and Irrigation Authority right across the region to ensure that farmers will be able to get their paddy out of the fields,” he added. (Andrew Carmichael)