300 acres rice lost in Region 6 as dry season prevails

…Hydromet office predicts normal rainfall by April

By Davina Ramdass and Andrew Carmichael

An estimated 300 acres of rice has been lost in Region Six, Berbice as a result of the dry prevailing conditions and lack of water and a further 500 acres are under threat. This is according to Regional Chairman David Armogan.

“If the rice doesn’t have water in time to grow, it burns out. That has been caused because we had about five days during which the pumps were shut down as a result of not being able to get fuel for these pumps. Since then the problem has resolved itself,” he said.
On the Corentyne, the “front lands” must wait until farmers in the Black Bush Polder would have taken in water into their fields before enough is available in the canals reach the front lands, he said.
While this is not the first time the situation has occurred, Armogan noted that the administration had started pumping water early so that by the time those farmers in the Black Bush Polder would have had had enough water, it will still be able to get to the front lands in time.
However, the fuel shortage affected that plan. Armogan noted that plan “B” has now kicked in.

“We have started to shut down certain areas and we have started to supply the areas where there is a problem. In the Yakasary South area the water has started to raise there so they should be okay by tomorrow, the 51/Goodhope area as well and the Adventure/Eversham area. That is the most affected area,” Armogan explained.
Compounding the problem is that more rice is not being planted in the front lands which have surpassed the acreage in the three Polders. 18,000 acres are under rice cultivation in the Black Bush Polder whereas 25,000 are now under cultivation in the front lands.
The pumps which pump water from the Canje Creek into the Black Bush Polder was not designed to include the front lands.
The Chairman added that the way forward will be to install additional pumps while noting that there are five pumps in the Polders but only four are currently working.
“NDIA which has the responsibility for drainage and irrigation in the cultivation areas will have to do something to make sure that we have adequate pumping capacity so that our irrigation system can be fully equipped to supply all rice farmers,” Armogan told the media.

Hydromet

Meanwhile, the Hydromet office has since predicted normal rainfall until April.
This was related to Guyana Times on Friday by a senior meteorologist attached to the Hydromet office, a division within the Agriculture Ministry.
According to the senior meteorologist, “Because they (farmers) would have received less than normal rainfall over the rainy season and now we are going into the dry season, it would mean that it would be harder on them”.
Although the rainy season is expected for the months of May and June, the meteorologist pointed out that the farmers’ prayer for rainfall is likely to be answered by April.
“We could only forecast and we could only suggest or give some implications of the forecast, which we did back in November,” the source posited.
Currently the staffers attached to the Hydrometeorological office are working on the forecast for the next three months which should be ready in the new week.

Region 2 situation
Apart from Berbice, reports coming out of Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) have spelled trouble for rice farmers. In fact, the Chairman of the Region, Davanand Ramdatt on Monday visited rice farmers on the Essequibo Coast, accompanied by Regional Vice Chairman, Nandranie Coonjah when they realised that thousands of acres of rice are under threat due to lack of water in the conservancy.
The regional administration is presently pumping water on a 24-hour basis at the Dawa Pumping Station to bring some relief to the situation, but due to the long dry weather period, the water level at the conservancy is very low and farmers have no other choice but to pump water from the irrigation canals to save the present rice crop.
In some areas the trenches are totally dried up and the entire cultivation is under serious threat due to the lack of water. Farmers who can afford pumps are forced to live for days in tents, vehicles and even trailers in the “back dams” just to pump the little water remaining in the trenches into the fields to save the crop.
According to rice farmers there, the last crop was already a disaster due to paddy bugs and blast.
Guyana Times understands that the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) has offered some support in the area of providing water.
Efforts made by this newspaper to contact the agency for a comment proved futile.
The warning of a dry season was first sounded during the fifth National Climate Outlook Forum (NCOF), hosted back in November.
The Hydromet Office had warned that less than usual rainfall can be expected over the next three months, owing to climatic conditions affecting the oceans.