Officials of both the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) and the Inter American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) this week confirmed that the new rice variety GRDB IICA-17 will hit the market within the next three weeks.
Mr. Badrie Persaud General Manager of the GRDB at Burma said that the variety has been under development since 2021 and following successful field tests was released to farmers in October last year hence the expected harvest during this month.
The disclosure was made during a field visit this week to Burma Research Center by Dr Manuel Otero the Director General of IICA, his special adviser, Mr. Jorge Werthein, Mr. Wilmot Garnett, IICA Representative in Guyana/CARICOM Liaison and Mr. Arnold De Mendonca, Sustainable Rural Development Specialist of the local office.
As at the moment the GRDB IICA -17 is the first bio-fortified rice variety to be cultivated in the Caribbean Region.
The rice variety naturally accumulates larger levels of zinc in the grains (17–20 mg per kg of zinc) and its value is that zinc is a necessary mineral that humans need to maintain cellular and immune system activities and as such it is anticipated that the demand for GRDB IICA -17 will be high.
This rice is also a good economic choice for farmers as it possesses excellent early vigor, it is a good plant type and high yield potential estimated at eight tonnes per hectare or approximately fifty bags per acre.
Mr. Badrie Persaud hailed the development of the zinc enriched variety as a great success story of collaboration between GRDB and IICA.
Commenting on this development last Tuesday, DG Dr Otero said: “When we join forces and collaborate, the results are like this. We have good results benefiting both farmers and consumers. I am very happy about the results of this collaboration. When I think about my job I think, this is what makes sense for me.”
In a requested comment, Mr Wilmot Garnett of IICA echoed the positive sentiments of both Mr Badrie and Dr. Otero.
Mr. Garnett said that IICA had taken on the development of a bio-fortified variety of rice with GRDB as a result of a request to do so from the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) of CARICOM in 2021.
IICA had from since then assisted both financially and technically.
Mr Garnett said: “It has been an excellent and results motivated relationship between IICA and GRDB.”
He said that the collaborators were enthused by the fact that both President Irfaan Ali and Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha had congratulated them for providing a practical solution to some of the challenges affecting the sector.
The team that bred and developed the variety was led by Dr. Mahendra Persaud AA Chief Scientist/Plant Breeder of the GRDB.
Collaborators IICA and GRDB are now actively considering marketing for both local and international markets,
Steps are also being taken to engage nutritionists who will prepare educational material on the
benefits of consumption of incoming GRDB IICA-17 on the local market.
