Despite being what officials have termed a “year of many challenges”, 2010 still ended with the rice industry setting record figures in exports and earnings.At the end of 2010, the production in the sector was the second highest ever recorded. The figure for production stood at 556.195mt.? The export figures stand at 336,313mt and were valued at US$154.6M which represents the highest earnings ever recorded for the sector.These figures were provided in the statement by the Chairman of the Guyana Rice Development Board, Nigel Dharamlall in the 2010 annual report which was presented in Parliament by Minster of Agriculture, Robert Persaud on Thursday last.According to Dharamlall, subdued prices and the negative effects of changing weather had a visible impact on the sector’s performance during crops. He noted that there was a severe dry spell during the spring crop leading to irrigation issues and excessive rainfall in the autumn crop which created disease problems. In this regard he noted that there were two huge infusions of cash by the government, $400M and $110M for each season.The $400M was spent on the distribution of fertilizer and the construction of at least 12 drying facilities in Regions Two,Soccer World Cup Jerseys, Three, Four,Chile Jersey, Five and Six. The $110M was spent on providing seed paddy and fertilizers to farmers in need in the wake of El Nino. The supplies were distributed at a rate of one bag seed paddy and one bag fertilizer per acre for a maximum of thirty acres. At the end of the project some, 12,366 bags of seed paddy and 3999 bags of fertilizer were distributed to farmers in the same regions.Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud whose statement was included in the report, stated that performance in the rice sector for 2010 represented a 1.4 percent growth in value added to the Gross Domestic Product over the previous year. He too chose to highlight the record figures in production and export earnings. Minister Persaud projected an increase in the industry’s production this year to 379,328mt which if it occurs will be the highest ever recorded. This production increase, should it be realized, is expected to generate a 4.9 percent increase in value added as a result. The 2010 export value was at least 28 percent higher than that of the highest figure recorded in 2008. Outside of the contracts with Venezuela, the major destinations for Guyana’s rice continue to be Jamaica, Portugal and Holland.Securing a portion of the Venezuelan market allowed for the exportation of 63,480 million tons of paddy and 22,Off White Nike Vapormax 2018, 274mt of white rice. In May of this year, the government announced the finalization of a $US48M rice deal with Venezuela which is one of the largest deals to date. The contract calls for 30,000 tons white rice at US$800 per mt and 50,000mt of paddy at $480 per mt.The payments to farmers come directly from Venezuela’s Petro-Caribe fund, an account established for oil payments from Guyana. The latest agreement is the fourth of its kind since being brokered by President Bharrat Jagdeo and Venezuela’s President,Cheap Adidas NHL Jerseys, Hugo Chavez. Initially, farmers were cautious about the deal and despite invitations were slow to export directly. Authorities later confirmed that the Venezuela deal has seen a rush of applications, with GRDB now urging for farmers to form groups and export en bloc.Of integral importance to the sector are the efforts of the Rice Research Station at Burma where work continues to develop high yield varieties of rice that exhibit tolerance to lodging,Stitched NFL Jerseys, stable resistance to blast,Cheap Jerseys, high milling yields and good cooking qualities. The Chairman’s report indicated that GRDB09 and GRDB10 continue to be superior to other commercial varieties. According to the report the grain yield performance over the two seasons for GRDB09 and GRDB10 were 6.3 t/ha and 7.0 t/ha respectively which represented 10 and 18 percent advantage over their corresponding check varieties.