Rice industry gets drone technology to improve efficiency

Last Updated on Tuesday, 6 August 2024, 20:31 by Writer

Small rice farmers will be provided drone services by the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) to assist them in increasing and improving the quality of the grain, through assistance from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and China, officials said Tuesday.

Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha said the drone service would be provided to the farmers free of cost to 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). “This project – the impact will be far-reaching,” the minister said.

The FAO, in collaboration with the China South-South Cooperation Network, has provided a total of USD$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,” GRDB General Manager, Badrie Persaud said at a closing ceremony for the project.

The project, which included engagements with 350 rice farmers, 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. Mr Narain explained that the drones could be used to conduct disaster risk management and estimate losses, identify crop variety, age and their susceptibility to paddy bugs.

FAO Representative in Guyana, Dr Gillian Smith said her United Nations organisation saw the original benefits of the project far being outweighed from what was to come. “This is bringing one form of technology to the rice sector,” she said. The FAO provided five of the drones and related technology.

The Agriculture Minister said Guyana’s rice production target for this year is 710,000 tonnes and next year’s forecast is 750,000 tonnes.