GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Aug 7, CMC – Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha says a drone service will be provided to small rice farmers free of charge and that the impact of the project “will be far-reaching”.
He said that the drone service would be provided by the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) and will assist farmers in increasing and improving the quality of the grain, through assistance from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and China.
FAO Representative in Guyana, Dr Gillian Smith said this is bringing one form of technology to the rice secto. The FAO provided five of the drones and related technology.
Mustapha said the drone service would aid in crop management in the rice growing areas of Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), Region Three (West Demerara-Essequibo Islands), Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) and Region Five (Mahaica-West Berbice).
The FAO, in collaboration with the China South-South Cooperation Network, has provided a total of US$165,000 in drones, computers and training of eight drone pilots and 12 Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data analysts.
“It is a very important project. It will have a very positive impact in terms of the development of rice,” said GRDB general manager, Badrie Persaud.
GRDB project coordinator, Dahasrat Narain, said all of the rice-growing plots in Guyana were mapped and name-tagged to the farmers.
He said demonstration exercises included showing farmers precise unlevel areas of their plots and informing them how much soil is needed to rectify that problem, whether sowing was done evenly, location of seeds, plant health and soil salinity.
Narain said that the drones could be used to conduct disaster risk management and estimate losses, identify crop variety, age and their susceptibility to paddy bugs.
Mustapha said Guyana’s rice production target for this year is 710,000 tonnes increasing to 750,000 tonnes next year.
CMC/gt/ir/2024.