Residents and farmers of Riverstown on the Essequibo Coast now have full access to a new drying floor.

The drying floor was commissioned Friday last by Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha. The asphaltic structure cost $10,071,000 and was constructed by A. Bacchus Contracting and

Trucking Services.

Mustapha said that the floor was constructed based upon requests made by farmers earlier in the year. Mustapha urged the farmers to make optimal use of the space to dry their paddy and said that once farmers make requests for those facilities to be constructed, the government through the Ministry of Agriculture will work diligently to fulfill them. He also hinted that the Government will be opening more agricultural lands and as such the usefulness of these facilities will be further enhanced. Mustapha advised the assembled

rice farmers that the government does recognize the revenue potential of the industry for the country and as such his ministry is ensuring that all infrastructural investments will be finalised.

“If we are to achieve our target of doubling paddy production within the next four years, we have to open up more lands and make the necessary facilities available to you, the farmers. When we took the government a little over a year ago, several agriculture inputs were taxable. We’ve since removed those taxes and farmers have more money in their pockets,” Mustapha said. The minister said that the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) has been working to develop new paddy varieties with potentially higher yields per acre. One such is the GRDB16 variety which could increase the national average from an average of 40 to 45 bags per acres to about 55 to 60 bags per acres. Another variety that the ministry is currently working on, through the GRDB and IICA, will be a biofortified rice variety enriched with zinc. That variety has the potential to be healthier and could attract better prices on the international market. The ministry is working to have that developed into a candidate variety and by May next year should be available to farmers.

Rice farmers were informed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is also working to retrieve money owed to Guyanese millers for rice supplied to Panama under the previous administration. Farmers who attended the meeting expressed gratitude for the drying floor. One farmer, Khemie Narine said that for years the community was asking for such and was thankful that it finally materialized. The ceremony was attended by General Manager of GRDB Kuldip Ragnauth and CEO of NAREI Jagnarine Singh along with Region Two Chairperson, Vilma De Silva.