The Guyana Rice Development Board’s (GRDB) Laboratory at La Bonne Intention (LBI) on the East Coast of Demerara was on Wednesday re-certified by the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS).
With the re-certification, the lab will aid in further improving the quality of rice produced in the country.
Delivering the feature address at the certification ceremony, Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha noted that the facility will play a significant role in the production of rice, a crop which extensively contributes to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
He noted that Guyana, especially in its agriculture sector, has been on the rise for the longest while, as almost all of its goals have been achieved to date.
“This year again we will be seeing, at the end of this period an increase in production. But more importantly, we will see the targets that were set in our budget being achieved,” the agriculture minister stated.
According to him, some of those goals will be made possible through the re-certification of the lab.
“It shows that this institution, especially GRDB’s lab, is playing a very important role because we know for a fact that without the lab, testing, and experimenting we would not have good yield,” Minister Mustapha posited.
GRDB’s Chairman of the Board of Directors, Madanlall Ramraj said the utilisation of this laboratory is anticipated to yield numerous benefits.
“It allows our product to be exported to many other countries because of the confidence level that those countries have or the faith they have in us since we meet the quality that they need,” Ramraj noted.
Meanwhile, Executive Director (ag) of the GNBS, Al Donovan Fraser, congratulated the workers for renewing the lab’s certification, as he noted they always meet the required standard.
“From the time GRDB was first certified to date, they have continuously maintained their certification. GRDB has continued to maintain its certification even though they are accredited. And that’s an achievable milestone,” the GNBS director said.
Just recently the Jamaican National Agency of Accreditation (JNAA) accredited GRDB’s lab and said it has met international standards.
