SANTO DOMINGO — Senior Dominican government leaders have outlined two decades of dramatic growth in the country’s rice sector, alongside a new multi-year strategy to boost productivity, sustainability and small producer support that anchors the industry as a core pillar of national food security. Vice President Raquel Peña spearheaded the official event showcasing the sector’s most recent milestones, highlighting advances ranging from expanded total output to the development of innovative, cost-saving rice strains.
Data presented at the gathering underscores the scale of the sector’s expansion: national white rice production has jumped from roughly 9.2 million quintals in 2005 to nearly 14.8 million quintals in 2025, representing a more than 60% increase over 20 years. Per-hectare productivity has also hit a new high, reaching 5,477.75 kilograms of paddy rice per hectare this year.
A key highlight of the industry’s progress is the development of new improved rice varieties, including the already deployed LRC JUMA 69-20 and LRC JUMA 70-22 strains. Researchers also highlighted the promising early performance of JUMA 71-25, a herbicide-tolerant variant that is expected to streamline weed management and cut overall production costs for Dominican farmers.
Minister of the Presidency Andrés Bautista García detailed the full slate of government measures already in place to support rice producers across the country. These include targeted subsidies for certified seeds and chemical fertilizers, preferential low-interest lending through the national Agricultural Bank, accessible agricultural insurance coverage, sustained investment in irrigation and drainage system maintenance, and guaranteed crop pledging programs that reduce market uncertainty for growers.
Looking ahead, Bautista outlined a comprehensive multi-year development framework for the rice sector that builds on these existing efforts. The plan includes establishing a dedicated specialized fund for the industry, expanding access to financing and scaling up certified seed distribution, increasing investment in public agricultural research, and upgrading critical rural infrastructure including irrigation networks, drainage systems and local farm-to-market roads.
The administration also intends to conduct a full review of national rice marketing mechanisms to introduce greater transparency in key processes such as crop weighing, tare calculation and moisture content verification. The review will center on addressing longstanding inequities that disproportionately impact small and medium-sized rice producers, who make up a large share of the country’s rural farming community.
Bautista emphasized that sustained growth in the rice sector cannot be achieved by the government alone, stressing the need for ongoing coordinated collaboration between public sector institutions, independent farming associations, academic research teams and private industry stakeholders to drive ongoing adoption of innovative technology and production practices. He added that protecting and expanding domestic rice production remains a non-negotiable national priority, as the industry underpins national food security, supports the broader rural economy and sustains the livelihoods of tens of thousands of Dominican families across the country.