While one of the plans for the rice planted at the Wales Estate was for aquaculture, the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) says that it is currently using it to produce seed paddy to sell to the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB).
In a letter published in the September 16, 2017 edition of Stabroek News, industry expert Anthony Vieira pointed out that the project’s origin ran in line with GuySuCo’s intention to kick start an aquaculture project.
He made the disclosure in response to a letter from PPP/C Member of Parlia-ment Ganga Persaud, who wrote that the Wales lands have been converted by the Ministry of Agriculture for the sole purpose of propagating new strains of seed paddy through the GRDB and the Burma Rice Research Station. Persaud dubbed it a “government ploy to go into paddy production in order to fully occupy the vast unutilised cane lands at Wales Estate. The whole concept is for the state to go into competition with the country’s peasant rice farmers.”
