Gov’t budgets 97.6b for agri...

yielding varieties with good milling and cooking qualities and varieties that are salt resistant and resistant to major rice diseases, we will evaluate the new G1410 high yielding variety in far more fields in 2024.”

In addition to drainage and irrigation, Singh said, that $1.3 B will be expended by GRDB to support increased production and productivity in the rice industry.

In terms of other crops, Singh said, that the government’s commitment to diversify nontraditional agriculture has seen emerging transformation of the subsector with the expanded cultivation of corn, soya bean, citrus, spices, coconuts, highvalue crops such as broccoli, cauliflowers, bell peppers, romaine lettuce, carrots, etc.

To bolster the expanded production of nontraditional crops, “we have invested in supporting infrastructure, we’ve invested in laboratory and extension services and we are opening up new market opportunities.”

In 2023, $1.9 B was expended to support other crop interventions while in 2024 a sum of $2.6 B is budgeted to “support the other crop sector.”

Homing in on corn and soya beans, Singh pointed out that the government’s collaboration with the private sector has been “very successful” with them investing over $1.4b over the last three years to develop the “infrastructure within the Tacama area to support the cultivation and production targets.”

“This saw the completion of the access road to Tacama, complemented by the now operational and very impressive drying and storage facility, work has started on an access wharf at Tacama and is slated for completion in 2024.”

For this year a sum of $967.8m is budgeted to improve the capacity of the Tacama facility.