Go ahead and plant, fuel available – Armogan tells rice farmers

Chairman of Region Six (East Berbice/Corentyne), David Armogan, is giving rice farmers in the region the go- ahead to plant, assuring that the Administration has funding to purchase fuel to supply water for farmers.

Despite this assurance, however, some rice farmers are still worried about the risk of going into the next crop.

During the last rice crop, which some farmers are still harvesting, there had been a battle at the Regional Administration level, with Armogan accusing Regional Executive Officer Kim Williams-Stephens of not purchasing fuel for the pumps.

While Williams had said that all five of the pumps at Manarabisi did not need to be operational and two had been functioning for weeks, farmers had been complaining of an urgent need for water, and had begged for all of the pumps to go into operation.
Lands became dry and had cracked open, and a large percentage of the crop had perished. Now the farmers have sought confirmation from caretaker Agriculture Minister Noel Holder that Government would provide fuel for the pumps while the farmers prepare for the Autumn crop.

On April 14, Minister Holder assured that farmers needed to go into the Autumn crop because rice is too big a foreign exchange-earner for them not to do so.
But even as he had implored the farmers to go into the next crop, he had said their concerns about a lack of fuel for the pumps should be addressed with the Regional Administration which controls the supply of fuel.
In an invited comment on Wednesday, Armogan told Guyana Times that there currently is enough fuel to last for about one week.
In addition to that, the Administration currently has some $19 million available to purchase fuel. This, he said, should be able to operate the pumps for about one month.
However, President of the Rice Producers Association, Leekha Rambrich, is of the view that with the rains expected next month, there would not be a great demand for the pumps to be operational, as was the case during the last crop.
“It is very important that we go to the crop, because with the worldwide situation with COVID-19, most of the big agriculture countries are facing difficulty. We have seen a lot of crops destroyed in the developing countries, and we have already seen a shortage of rice in China. It would be a severe setback if Guyana does not venture into this crop,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Rice Millers Association, Rajendra Persaud, has said rice farmers must go into the next crop because it is a huge foreign earner for Guyana.
“Rice is very important for us and for our neighbours to survive through this crisis,” he stressed.
However, if rice farmers do not go into the Autumn crop, the Rice Millers Association Head says, it would impact negatively on their obligations to financial institutions.
“Most farmers live on loans, and if they don’t plant, then they can’t pay their loans,” he stated.
He explained that close to 75 per cent of the irrigation needs for the Autumn crop has been satisfied by rainfall. Hence, the cost to put the crop into action and make it successful is not as heavy as for the two other crops.
However, Rambrich is of the opinion that the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) can play a better role in ensuring that fuel reaches to the pumps so that farmers can start their crop in time.
In Region Six, 60,000 acres were under rice cultivation, and farmers are currently reaping between 38 and 40 bags per acre, and being paid $3300 per bag of paddy.
There are still about 8,000 acres to be harvested in the Black Bush Polder, and a similar amount in the 52/74 area.
In the front lands of the Black Bush Polder, where an additional 20,000 acres are under rice cultivation, harvesting has reached 60 per cent.