Guyana says that by 2025 it will be self-sufficient in livestock feed production, and expects to end the dependence on imparted feed.  The country produced 0,000 acres of corn and soya beans in 2023.

This news came at a time when Guyana’s rice industry announced that a seven percent increase in 2023 over 2022.

“We have seen almost 10,000 acres of corn and soya beans being produced in 2023, with production for 26,000 acres for the end of 2024… And 30,000 acres by the end of 2025. This will take us to self-sufficiency in 2025 for us to produce all of our livestock feed for our country’s needs…And for us to be a net exporter in the Caribbean,” Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha stated.

“We have built 41 kilometres of roads in the Tacama area there. We have built the silos, 9,000-tonne silos, that they are using to process the corn and soya. And we have seen production increasing over the years,” Mustapha added.

With the fastest-growing economy in the world, Guyana keeps attracting new investors as a result of the abundance of opportunities.

In 2023 paddy production increased by seven per cent which is about 653,706 metric tons – 43,111 metric tons increase in the production in 2023.

With additional earnings of approximately Guy$45.2 billion in export – USD$210 million – the country was able to renovate and build several facilities to help in the country’s rice production. It includes a plant-breeding lab at Burma, Region Five.

This lab will perform research with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), the international body that has been collaborating with Guyana to study the bio-certified rice or the zinc-enriched variety rice.

Minister Mustapha noted that eight drying floors have been built across the country in the last three years. He said that the Black Bush Polder seed processing facility in Region Six that has been made operable during the year will produce close to 6,000 bags of paddy for approximately 600 farmers.

The ministry, he said, will continue to explore options to expand its rice production as time goes by.