Rice production exemplifies the hard work and achievement of Guyanese
Viewpoint
By Kweku McDonald
Guyana Chronicle
August 4, 2003
STATISTICALLY, rice production increase is an exemplification of Guyanese industriousness and objective achievement. Through official Government figures, it is understood that approximately 10,000 farm families are involved in the cultivation of rice. Thousands more are involved in the various processes as milling, exporting, input supplies, transport and administration in the sector. The cultural affinity with the grain undoubtedly added to the necessary human factor inputs mentioned, is integral in the success of the sector output.
Rice exports have increased in most aspects of export output of the grain. Cargo rice exports increased by 18 per cent in 1999 over the previous year's production. Likewise with cargo Parboiled Rice there was a 58.4 per cent increase, 96.2 per cent increase in Parboiled Rice and a 5.8 per cent increase in Rice Bran exports in 1999 over that of 1998 production. In 1999 rice production was 365,000 tonnes, reportedly the largest in the history of production in Guyana. Rice on the whole contributes 14 per cent to overall output of Guyana.
Most importantly, it contributes on average 4 per cent to Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It is this income contribution that is most crucial to the perception of the sector. Critics overlook the previous mentioned output gains of recent, and lambaste normal earnings from the sector when international markets are unfavourable. The resultant financial incongruence among rice farmers, creditors and millers, is the ammunition for doomsayers' judgement of the sector as being in crisis.
The permitting of liberalised terms of repayment between banks and farmers through government intervention, is innovative and a positive development. The non-payment of rice farmers by millers when normal and abnormal profits are not made is the source of a lot of discontent. It is peculiar in that contrary to laissez-faire practice, farmers are not paid immediately for their produce by the millers. This may more have to do with an evolved feudo-paternalist relationship that factors from rural socio-economies. Had it been to the contrary, adaptability of output to unfavourable market conditions would have been spontaneous.
The safeguard mechanism implemented on the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT) route of the EU for rice producers in Southern Europe, has made Guyana's Strategic Plan imperative for success. The CARICOM working group on the development of the rice industry, needs to address the enforcement of the 40 per cent Common External Tariff (CET) on rice emanating extra-regionally. Rice export to West Africa should be competed for as well as the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations predicts that the growth in rice consumption here will remain high at 4.5 per cent per annum. This growth rate is twice the size of population growth. Also, bearing in mind that scientists at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) predict that rice supplies the world over will have to increase by 60 per cent by 2020 to satisfy increasing demand, a niche in the Asian Market can be sought after as well.
Development and diffusion of rice technology among producers is admirable in Guyana. This is a complement to the new vigour in rice research nationally and attainment internationally, and the work of the producers association. Disease resistant varieties as the Rustic varieties are common in Guyana.
Internationally, high yielding dry land varieties are being developed in West Africa, and this should be adopted for our fledgling upland interior farmers. In another instance, new techniques in biotechnology and genetic engineering enable scientists to transfer the genes from one rice plant directly to the cells of another - reducing breeding time and allowing for the transfer of specific traits. Instead of crossbreeding plants in the field, scientists are now able to make finite genetic changes to plant embryos in test tubes, virtually ensuring the success of transfer.
