Rice industry must select pertinent technology
-Jagdeo tells international symposium

By Patrick Denny
Stabroek News
September 14, 1999


The challenge for the rice industry is to investigate and propose technology that is efficient and affordable while being appropriate to the scale and circumstances of the producers to whom they are being offered, according to President Bharrat Jagdeo.

Addressing the opening session of the international symposium on Mechanised Rice Production and Marketing, at Le Meridien Pegasus yesterday, President Jagdeo observed that there continued to be great scope for increasing the value-added component of the industry but care had to be exercised in the choice of technology.

"We certainly do not want to be locked into technology that is inflexible and do not allow us to respond to changing market forces," he said. "Neither do we want to adopt technology that is only suitable for certain scales of production and that prevent us from capitalising from the broad range of production talent that we have available."

Turning to marketing, President Jagdeo observed that Guyana had "to make very hard decisions about our markets."

He noted that in recent times Guyana had to energetically seek out new markets making inroads into Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Colombia and some African countries.

"This is as it should be. There is no time for complacency or complaints. We now need to determine whether it is feasible to produce for specialty markets where prices are sometimes much higher but which demand higher standards as well."

The President also stressed the importance of information to sustaining and improving the livelihood of those who directly and indirectly depend on the industry. He said that Guyana's ability to do so would be "contingent on our ability to make informed decisions about the future and the future impact of current interventions. Our ability to market our products is very much dependent on the quality of information to which we have access. Information in turn assists us in determining how we produce and the mix of products that we offer for sale."

Referring to the theme of the conference, the President said that it was necessary always to take into account the socio-economic environment in which technological innovations are being promoted.

Noting that the rice industry here is "in many ways technologically advanced," President Jagdeo said that there had been significant investment in agronomic research and the production of improved varieties of rice.

However, he said, on the other hand mechanisation had evolved through trial and error with the knowledge base residing much more in the day-to-day farming community than it did in the scientific community.

"If we are to make the advances that will allow us to compete sustainably in highly competitive world markets, it is necessary for us to take a much more holistic approach to technology."

As a consequence, he said, it was necessary "to develop a cadre of personnel who understand not only the science of agriculture but the economics and sociology as well."

Agriculture Minister, Reepu Daman Persaud, in his remarks to the opening session, noted the great strides which the industry had made in recent years.

He said that while there had been growth in the other agricultural sub-sectors of sugar, livestock and fisheries, the most impressive strides had been made in the rice industry.

He said that production had increased from 90,000 tonnes in 1991 to 341,000 tonnes in 1997. This year, he said, the anticipated production is 360,000 tonnes and the target for the foreseeable future was one million tonnes once the constraints are removed and research and other activities are continued at the present levels.

He noted that 80% of the world's supply of rice is produced by countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, China and India, but these countries consume the bulk of what they produce.

As a result, he said, net exporters of rice, to ensure their viability in the marketplace, needed to be aware of the technological advances being made. Guyana, he said, needed to explore the economic feasibility of the utilisation of machinery in the production of rice.

The agriculture minister also reiterated the government's commitment to the expansion of rice industry, a pledge reiterated by President Jagdeo. The President said that he was "personally committed to improving legal access to land by all our producers and plans are currently being implemented to ensure that the processing of land titles is accelerated."

Chairman of the session, rice magnate Beni Sankar, noted the improvements which had been made in the last 50 years. Sankar pointed out that the industry had produced varieties of rice grains which were blast resistant. Also, that the industry had achieved a niche market in Europe because of the length of the grain and special cooking qualities of the rustic variety.

He noted that Guyana was in the fortunate position of being able to produce two rice crops a year, while most countries can only grow one, and of having large tracts of land which could be brought under cultivation.

However, he said that the pressing issue for the industry was being able to improve overall efficiency. All things being equal, Sankar said, the industry could produce and export one million tonnes of rice at a good price because of the increased demand for the grain on the world market.

He said that the symposium was an opportunity for Guyana to learn from the experiences of other rice-producing countries and for those countries to observe how rice is grown in Guyana.

The symposium which is co-sponsored by the Caribbean Rice Association and the Guyana Rice Development Board, ends on Thursday. It has attracted scientists and agricultural experts from most of the rice growing countries in the world, including Brazil, Venezuela, India, the United States of America, Colombia, Belize, Trinidad and Tobago, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Suriname, Australia, Cuba, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom.


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