New rice variety still being pursued – Rice board head

TIMES INT'L

The Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) is still pursuing the creation of a new variety of rice which is expected to bring better yields to rice farmers across the country.
Although tight-lipped on the entire developmental process, GRDB General Manager Allison Peters has said the new variety is being closely monitored by scientists at the research station.

“There is a variety that the plant breeder is working on. We don’t want to show our hand before it is ready, because, you know, seed paddy and developing a new variety takes several seasons. It’s at a stage where we are cultivating it in farmers’ fields, and we are looking at how it’s behaving in those fields; but we can’t tell you (that it will be ready by) next season, (and) we can’t tell you the season after; but it’s soon,” Peters said.
A GRDB team recently held an outreach in Region Six, where they discovered that farmers were using a Brazilian variety of rice commonly known as ‘100 day’ to produce paddy. The farmers praised the Brazilian variety, highlighting that it requires less field maintenance, less attention, and has a shorter yielding period. Moreover, the overall results are usually better when compared with local varieties.
Ms Peters told the farmers that the Brazilian rice variety is an illegally imported brand, and it has serious implications for the local rice crop.
According to the Department of Public Information, the new variety of rice being developed locally is likely to eliminate the farmers’ need to smuggle into Guyana brands of paddy from other countries; as it promises greater yields, with less risk of paddy bug infestation and other crop diseases.
The GRDB had, earlier in the year, projected that this new variety could be expected by 2018.

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