Guyana Agriculture Profile 2012

Reference Date: 10-February-2011

Favourable prospects for the 2011 paddy crop

Good weather conditions during December and January favoured planting of the2011 second paddy crop season. According to remote sense analysis Regions 2, 5 and 6, representing approximately 75 percent of paddy production of the current cropping season, present above normal vegetation conditions, better than at the same time last year.

Current forecast for the aggregate 2011 paddy production indicate an increase of some 5 percent from the previous year to a record level of some 585 000 tonnes (380 000 tonnes in milled terms). This reflects higher yields as farmers benefit from improved varieties of rice and expectations of favourable weather conditions.

Good 2010 paddy production and record rice exports

The 2010 rice production is estimated at 554 000 tonnes (360 000 tonnes in milled terms), slightly below to 2009’s record and the ice industry in Guyana recorded its highest export of 320 000 tonnes.

06/12/2010  Below average rainfall affected 2009 paddy production
Since May 2009, many parts of the country have been experiencing below average rainfall levels. In Regions Two and Three, emergency interventions have being carried out in February by the Ministry of Agriculture to bring relief to the farmers affected by the prolonged drought conditions through the distribution of planting materials and fertilizers for cash crops.

Due to the unfavourable precipitations that limited the availability of water for irrigation, aggregate paddy rice production for 2009 (both main and second season, whose harvest is ongoing) is forecast at 470 000 tonnes, approximately 7 percent lower than the previous year’s bumper harvest.
 

Virtually all the farming is done on the coastal plain, especially the eastern part. The chief agricultural products are sugar and rice. Both are major exports. Individual farmers, many of them living at a subsistence level, grow rice, plantains, and other tropical plants.