Some Corentyne rice farmers (Region Six: East Berbice-Corentyne) are worried that they may not be able to go back into the crop as a result of the extensive flooding.
Apart from rice farmers, cash crop farmers have suffered total losses as a result of floodwaters which have affected every village on the Corentyne Coast. In the #52-74 area, considered the front lands of the Black Bush Polder, 14,000 acres of rice fields exist.
Unseasonal rainfall in March and April affected early harvesting, and an abundance of seasonal rainfall in May has severely impacted harvesting in that area, as many dams used to transport harvested paddy from the fields have become inaccessible.
Over 95 percent of the rice crop has, however, been harvested, but the yield for the last 10 percent harvested has been poor because of inundation of the fields.
Already, 15 farmers have gone back into the crop, cultivating 9,000 acres.
Tottaram Dass
However, Rice Producers Association (RPA) Extension Officer Ramlakhan Singh has said that if the necessary steps are not taken urgently, those farmers would lose what they have already planted. The rice is under one foot of water, and according to Singh, it looks as if all the plants would die.
He is also of the opinion that many farmers would not be able to go back into the crop because, by the time the water is eventually drained off of the land, it would be too late in the year to cultivate rice.
Singh noted that if farmers plant too late, they would not have enough time to harvest before the next rainy season commences.
Singh, who cultivated 65,000 acres of rice, believes the water is coming through the Manarabisi Pump Station which takes water from the Canje River for irrigation purposes in the Black Bush Polder and the front lands along the Corentyne Coast.
The water from the Canje River has forced the doors of the Pump Station open, allowing water to get into the cultivation area.
“If we don’t close the siphon doors of the Manarabisi Pump and seal the entire intake that takes water to the rice fields, which is about twelve boxes, we will end up with huge water, and we may not be able to plant,” he explained.
Meanwhile, cash crop farmers in the area are also suffering, having lost all.
Tottaram Dass, who cultivates several vegetables, including tomatoes, told this publication that rain had been falling on a daily basis, and as a result he has lost all that he had planted.
“Seven hundred roots of pepper, all damaged! The root get soft and they rotten!”
Apart from this, Dass noted, 1100 tomato plants which were bearing have also died as a result of the persistent rainfall.
However, he noted that he has been able to harvest some vegetables before the plants died.
“Everything bear, but we ent get to pick all,” he added.
Dass estimates his losses in terms of the vegetables which were ready to be harvested at $100,000. Nevertheless, he said, wholesalers have been offering premium prices to farmers.
According to some farmers, wholesalers are now paying $700 for a bag of eggplant. At the Port Mourant market, the vegetable is being sold wholesale at $10,000 per bag.
