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Guyana AGRICULTURE
![[JPEG]](http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/jpeg.gif)
Farmer with harvested red chili peppers, Essequibo Islands-West
Demerara District
Courtesy Inter-American Development Bank (David Mangurian)
Agriculture was the chief economic activity in Guyana. Only the
coastal plain, comprising about 5 percent of the country's land
area, was suitable for cultivation of crops. Much of this fertile
area lay more than one meter below the high-tide level of the sea
and had to be protected by a system of dikes and dams, making
agricultural expansion expensive and difficult. In the 1980s, there
were reports that the 200-year-old system of dikes in Guyana was in
a serious state of disrepair. Guyana's remaining land area is
divided into a white sand belt, which is forested, and interior
highlands consisting of mountains, plateaus, and savanna
(see Terrain
, ch. 2).
In the 1980s, sugar and rice were the primary agricultural
products, as they had been since the nineteenth century. Sugar was
produced primarily for export whereas most rice was consumed
domestically. Other crops included bananas, coconuts, coffee,
cocoa, and citrus fruits. Small amounts of vegetables and tobacco
were also produced. During the late 1980s, some farmers succeeded
in diversifying into specialty products such as heart-of-palm and
asparagus for export to Europe.
Data as of January 1992
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![[JPEG]](http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/guyana/gy03_03a.jpg)
