Bumper crop for Black Bush farmers as cash crop farmers receive low pay

Rice farmers in Black Bush Polder are celebrating a bumper crop boasting yields of 45 bags of paddy per acre, while cash crop farmers in the same area are worrying about the low pay they are being offered for their produce.
Sixty-five per cent of the 18,000 acres under rice cultivation has already been harvested in the four polders. Another 4500 acres remain in the fields to be

harvested before the crop comes to an end. While those farmers are happy, the cash crop farmers are worried about the low prices they are receiving for vegetables.
Seeram Ownauth is a cash crop farmer who has five acres under cultivation in Yakusari. He says sellers who come to his farm to purchase do not pay until after selling the vegetables to retailers.
“When they come back then they pay you and they give you what they want. The cash crop farmers are being offered $1000 for a bag of eggplant. Ochro, he said, is offered $10 per pound.
Some of the low prices are reflected in the market. While the farmers are being offered $10 per pound of okra, it is being retailed at $80 per pound at some outlets. Meanwhile, the rice farmers are counting big dollars. Roshad Gafoor has 45 acres under rice cultivation. He told Guyana Times that he is expecting to receive $1.9 million for all of his paddy. Another rice farmer in the Polder, Sasenarine Ramnarine, is smiling after reaping his 21 acres. According to him, he reaped an average of 35 to 40 bags of paddy per acre. This he referred to as excellent. During the last crop, some farmers were reaping 25 bags of paddy per acre in the Black Bush Polder.
He attributed this bumper crop to proper field management and the correct usage

of fertilisers and insecticides.
Previously, Ramnarine planted the hybrid strain referred to as GRDB 10 which is a hybrid from Brazil. Some farmers who have planted the GRDB 10 have reported similar yields to Ramnarine.
However, that production could be considered low as farmers are seeing as many as 50 bags of paddy per acre being harvested from some fields.
Meanwhile, Region Six Chairman David Armogan met with some of the farmers on Wednesday morning, saying several other factors affecting operational cost have resulted in larger profits for the rice farmers. He explained that the cost to hire trucks during this crop has decreased. The price of hiring a combine has also decreased and that will also help the farmers to make more profits this crop, the Regional Chairman related.
In the Black Bush Polder, 18,000 acres are under rice cultivation and a further 24,000 in what is considered the front lands or the Corentyne coast between Adventure and Number 43 Village.
The Chairman explained that there is a problem in trying to ensure that while the backlands (Black Bush Polder) needs the fields to be dry for harvesting, those in the front lands who will be harvesting in a few weeks need water so that they can pump into their fields.
“So that is a little problem that we have to keep the water in the canal at a level that it can reach to the front lands for those farmers and also at a level that if it rains there will be no flooding in Black Bush because then the farmers will not be able to reap and those who have not finished reaping will have big loses,” Armogan added.