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NGSA Social Studies study materials
NGSA Social Studies study resources

NGSA Social Studies: Guyana: Economy, Agriculture and Natural Resources

NGSA Social Studies · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

All guide sections

Guyana: Economy, Agriculture and Natural Resources

Guyana has a small, open, mixed economy built on agriculture, mining, forestry and, since 2019, offshore oil. This domain tests how the sectors fit together, where the main crops and minerals come from, and why production is fragile.

Sectors and exports

  • Primary: rice, sugar, coconuts, cassava and fruit; gold and bauxite mining; timber; fishing; crude oil and gas from the offshore Stabroek Block, which began production in 2019 and now dominates exports.
  • Secondary: sugar factories at Albion, Blairmont, Uitvlugt and Skeldon, rice mills, rum distilleries and sawmills.
  • Tertiary: transport, banking, tourism, wholesale and retail, and the public service.

Agriculture and land

  • Rice is grown in Essequibo, the Mahaica–Mahaicony–Abary scheme and Black Bush Polder; sugar cane on the coastal belt; cattle in the Rupununi savannahs.
  • Soils include pegasse, front-land clay and sandy reef lands. Farming depends on kokers, canals, pumps and conservancies because much coastal land lies below high-tide level.
  • Agencies: GRDB (rice), NAREI (crops), GLDA (livestock), GuySuCo (sugar) and the Guyana Forestry Commission.

Constraints and responses

  • A narrow cultivated coastal strip, expensive drainage, weather damage, and a small home market mean most output must be exported to CARICOM, Europe and beyond.
  • Diversification into oil, tourism and non-traditional crops is intended to reduce dependence on a few commodities.

Worked example

Guyana grows large amounts of rice yet still imports food. Give one reason. Reasoning: rice is an export crop grown mainly for sale abroad, while much of the food eaten locally - wheat flour, dairy, processed goods - cannot be produced cheaply at home, and only a narrow drained coastal strip is available for farming. Naming the export orientation and the limited farmland earns both marks.

Traps that cost marks

  • Mixing up regions: rice is not the main crop of the Rupununi, and cattle are not reared on the coastal sugar estates.
  • Placing the start of oil production before 2019.
  • Confusing Linden (bauxite) with the gold-bearing interior.