Forty-five miles from Georgetown at Burma, Mahaicony, the 610-acre Rice Research Station does its work without the attention customarily attracted by other institutions, which, arguably, are of decidedly less importance to the economy. Five hundred and sixteen acres of the property on which the facility sits are dedicated to seed production and a further seventy acres are used for field experiments. The remaining twelve acres house offices, laboratories, other research buildings and residential premises.
The complex mix of responsibilities that comprise the work of the Rice Research Station include plant breeding, agronomy, weed management, entomology, pathology and farm management and seed production. Taken together, these scientific pursuits amount to keeping Guyana’s rice industry alive and ensuring its competitiveness. Put differently,
