GEORGETOWN, Guyana - Guyana is tackling the soaring price of food in markets by sending citizens to their gardens to grow their own.

President Bharrat Jagdeo said Thursday the government would give seeds — mostly rice — in rural communities, hoping that people will sow them on idle land and in gardens in the small South American nation.

"I don't want to say that everyone should become a farmer because not everyone is cut out for that, but when the economics are right you can do anything," said Jagdeo, who did not reveal the cost of the program.

Indian communities would get seeds for a special variety of rice suitable for the hilly communities where many life.

Isolated protests have broken out over rising food costs in Guyana, where chicken costs 50 percent more than it did last year. Rice prices have risen 80 percent. U.N. officials have expressed alarm about food price rises worldwide.

Guyana also announced Thursday that it has restricted rice exports to Africa to ensure that poultry farmers have enough feed stock.