Another major facility set to transform the agricultural sector is the soon-to-be-commissioned Tissue Culture Laboratory in Guyana.
This new lab was announced by Minister of Agriculture, Zulifikar Mustapha at the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute’s (NAREI) open day event, where he emphasised the importance of investments made in the agricultural sector.
This significant investment in the agricultural sector represents the government’s commitment to innovation that will transform the way plants are propagated and cultivated in Guyana.
This process of tissue culture involves the cultivation of plant cells, tissues and organs in a sterile environment using a nutrient-rich medium.
Under the right conditions, we can see an entire plant regenerate from a single cell.
This critical but transformational process will see the production of high-quality plants that are disease-free and provide a scientific solution to some of the major plant production challenges faced in Guyana.
The impacts of this facility within Guyana’s agricultural sector are immense since this will now contribute to enhanced crop production, improved plant resilience and support the diversification of crops in an already thriving sector.
This tissue culture technique has been around for more than 30 years.
In 2023, an agreement to establish a tissue culture facility was signed by the Government of Guyana through the Ministry of Agriculture and The Energy Resource Institute (TERI) of India.
Now being realised, the new facility will be located on NAREI’s grounds as a commercial-sized facility that will enhance its research capabilities and will take the production of plantlets to soaring heights.
With this new facility on the horizon, benefits will directly impact the farmers as they will now be able to cultivate plants of superior quality, which will lead to greater harvests and increased profitability.
Looking ahead, the possibilities are limitless with the government’s continued investments, contributing to crop diversification, self-sufficiency and sustainability of Guyana.
