Agri Minister pushes rice farmers to reduce production costs

…says new drainage projects, shared machinery aims to ease farmer expenses

Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha is urging rice farmers to urgently reduce their cost of production, advising that high operating expenses are placing long-term pressure on the sustainability of Guyana’s rice industry. Addressing farmers in Region Six, on Saturday, Mustapha said while production has been increasing steadily in recent years, farmers must now focus on efficiency if the industry is to remain resilient. “The cost of production for farmers is very high. We are making a valuable contribution to the cost, but we must also address the factors that are driving those costs up,” the Minister said.
He identified land rental as one of the biggest contributors to rising production expenses.
“One of the major factors that contributed to the high cost is land rental. People rent land for exorbitant prices. Sometimes you run one crop and forget the land and when you look at the cost of production, the cost gone up because the land rental gone up,” Mustapha said. The Minister disclosed that the Government is now examining cases where persons holding Government leases rent those lands to farmers at inflated prices.
“They are barely paying about $1000 per acre to Lands and Surveys and they are charging farmers $30,000… we have to look at that,” he stressed.
He said this practice was unfair to farmers and had to be addressed if production costs were to be lowered. To ease pressure on land access, the Minister announced that new lands will soon become available in Region Six through major drainage projects.
“We are building Hope-like canals; one at Numbers 51 and 52, and another in the Manchester-Lancaster area. When those canals are completed, several acres of new land will be opened up,” he explained. Those lands, he said, will be distributed and brought under cultivation to reduce farmers’ dependence on expensive rented lands.
“We are looking to distribute those lands and bring them into production,” Mustapha added. He also outlined plans to reduce costs through cluster farming, where groups of farmers will share machinery provided by the Government. “We want to organise rice-producing clusters. The Government will purchase combine harvesters, tractors, ploughs and harrows and give those groups to operate for themselves,” he said.
“This will allow that cost to be absorbed and shared, instead of every farmer having to carry it on his own.” According to Mustapha, mechanisation is no longer optional.
“We have to change the way we do things. We cannot continue to run this industry as a labour-intensive industry. We have to mechanise and modernise the rice industry,” he said. He also pointed to the lack of storage as another factor forcing farmers to sell paddy immediately, sometimes at unfavourable prices. “We are also looking to enhance and expand our storage facilities. Right now, once you harvest paddy, you have to sell it because you have no place to store it,” he noted. Mustapha said the Government is also working to secure additional export markets so farmers can have more options for selling their produce. He reminded farmers that drainage and irrigation upgrades in Region Six are part of the wider effort to reduce losses and production costs.
“Large investments are being made in building canals, rehabilitating canals and putting new pump stations in place so that we can minimise flooding in these communities,” he said. Region Six, he noted has about 75,000 acres of land available for rice production, with yields increasing in several areas. Mustapha said reducing production costs is now critical for the survival of the industry. “We want an industry that is vibrant and resilient. But to achieve that, we must reduce the cost of production,” he told farmers.
He also urged farmers to support the modernisation drive. “We have to change the industry. We have to modernise the industry, and the Government is moving in that direction to help ensure that we modernise this industry,” Mustapha said.