Dear Editor,
In a Guyana Times report on parliamentary affairs (May 12) , and in the Stabroek News (May 20) as well as in the Chronicle, Prime Minister (PM) Moses Nagamootoo denied that the coalition Government ever promised rice farmers 00 per bag of paddy.
Then it is incumbent upon the PM to explain how and why farmers all over the country mentioned a promise of K for daan (paddy) as a reason for voting for the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) coalition. SN did not carry this response.
Prior to the May 2015 elections, many Indian rice farmers and their families told me they were voting APNU/AFC because of a commitment from the coalition leadership of 00 a bag for “daan” (paddy). I travelled around the rice belt throughout the country just prior to general elections querying about how voters intended to vote for the NACTA poll. The message to the rice farmers was the same everywhere – 00 a bag for paddy.
In all fairness to the PM, I personally did not hear Prime Ministerial Candidate Nagamootoo or Presidential Candidate David Granger specifically say (on a campaign platform) they were guaranteeing 00 a bag for paddy. But the leadership and their campaign workers made the rice farmers feel they were cheated by the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) regime on rice prices (as per the Venezuela-Guyana rice agreement). I interacted with AFC campaign workers in Essequibo Coast, West Berbice and on the Corentyne and they mentioned the rice farmers were entitled to 00 a bag for paddy based on the agreement with Venezuela. That was an astounding sum that was simply not practical based on my calculation of price per unit under the Venezuela agreement and the amount of daan needed for a bag of “chaaor” (rice); before leaving for study abroad, I assisted my siblings on rice operations (on the field, in the mills, and in the market) and as such am familiar with practical pricing. The campaign workers (with instruction from the leadership perhaps) must have told the farmers they would get 00 a bag, and farmers must have fallen for the propaganda. Nine thousand dollars a bag for daan was simply not practical and I even told some farmers and AFC about my view on that number.
Everywhere I travelled , there were talks among farmers on the Essequibo Coast, the islands, West Coast, East Coast, West Berbice, Corentyne, etc, that they would get 00 a bag for daan. How was it that all the farmers (all over the country) had “00 per bag” stuck in their head? Someone would have had to instruct the activists and ground campaign workers to spread that message. Where did it come from? Did all the activists and campaign workers come up with that number on their own? Did all of them come up with the same evaluation of the Venezuela agreement that that the farmers were being cheated by the PPP regime? Wouldn’t someone have had to instruct the activists to spread that propaganda to win votes? That was one of the reasons so many farmers and their families (equivalent of about six seats) voted for the coalition giving it the Government. The farmers also told me that the coalition spokesperson guaranteed them a market for rice. Subsequently, in Government, both Nagamootoo and Granger said finding market for rice and farm products is not Government business.
As we now learn (hindsight 20/20), without the promise of the 00 a bag and a guaranteed market, the rice farmers may very well have stuck it out with the PPP because they were getting an average of 00 a bag as opposed to now when they are getting below 00 – operating at a loss. Venezuela was a guaranteed market for the rice. In more recent travels to the same areas around the country, rice farmers, and others as well, now say they are disappointed that the coalition broke promises made to them.
Instead of only denials, the coalition leadership should tender some kind of regret to the rice farmers for the low paddy price and make a genuine effort to offer a subsidy per bag to rice farmers so they can reduce losses. The farmers claim they have suffered huge losses since the change in Government in May 2015. Shouldn’t the Government try to assist the farmers instead of only issuing denials that they did not guarantee 00?
Yours truly,
Dr Vishnu Bisram
