Investments in improving drainage structures in the country’s agricultural belt are paying major dividends since heavier than usual rains have not resulted in any major flooding. Guyana’s rice industry, now rated as the second most important in the agricultural sector was one of the major beneficiaries of the improved drainage infrastructure, prospering despite the heavy rainfall to record continuously increased output during the first quarter of 2011, according to the Ministry of Agriculture’s Commodity Market Update for the first quarter of this year.
Despite the increased yield, however, the ministry said that harvested rice fell below the budgeted target for the period. Lower than targeted yield was due mainly to harvesting delays resulting from the onset
