Hague rice farmer hopes to get at least 60% of produce

Several acres of rice fields in Hague, West Coast Demerara have been affected by bugs, but the affected farmer is hoping to get at least 60 per cent of his produce come next month, when the crop is ready to be harvested.
This was related by the rice farmer, Omar Dhanny, whose plot of land was infested with termites back in August of this year.

He said, “I hoping that I can mek a 50 or 60 per cent recovery, cause you know that still wouldn’t be bad, (rather) than to lose the whole crop”.
The farmer was happy to report that he has seen improvement in the field. He does not credit this to the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), which recently told this newspaper that their intervention was successful.
“As I look at the field there right now, I actually recovered about 40 per cent, from the way it went,” Dhanny added.
He said, “The rice won’t be able to cover the expense, but at least you might get back some”. He explained that due to the stage the rice is at, he would be unable to say how much he might lose because of the infestation.
The farmer would have since spent thousands of dollars to recover the rice fields from the termites, which he feared would have decimated the entire crop.
To date, he said, he is continuing to use pesticides which were recommended by an ex-National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) official.
He said he would have only drained the field, as was suggested by the GRDB, since he was already using the pesticides recommended by the GRDB extension officers, who reportedly only dispatched officers to the area after this newspaper exposed the situation.
Head of the GRDB, Nizam Hassan, about two weeks ago boasted of major improvement to the rice fields during an interview with Guyana Times.
He, however, stated, “It is too early to say whether or not the crop will be of the standard when it is time for harvest, which should be just about four weeks from now”.
According to Hassan, the discolouration first observed on the plants is now fading, as the plants are beginning to become greener due to the treatment recommended by the GRDB and constant monitoring.
One farmer, Ganga Persaud, who has 60 years of experience in the field, said, “There are some improvements, but not too much to be happy about. The rice, since GRDB officials from research came, they went there and they uprooted some plants and took some water samples, and they looked at it and they strained the water and found some dead worms”.
Persaud argued that the officials ‘routinely checks’ for the usual pests, something which he believes is not the real reason for the plants’ state. He said, “They did not look for what they did not find”.
The farmers initially claimed that some 120 acres of their lands were being affected by a termite infestation, but GRDB later dismissed this claim, saying that advice was given to the farmers to drain the fields and apply systematic pesticides, but the farmers refused to do so.
The GRDB said it determined that the farmer needed to drain the field and apply a systematic pesticide; in this instance, it was recommended that Pronto and Regional at the recommended rates be used.
Hassan said a subsequent visit by the GRDB showed that the farmer had water weevils, and had not been spraying with the required pesticide recommended by the team.
The GRDB head claimed that the farmer also admitted to not draining his field despite being advised to do so, and has advised that the farmer was, in fact, applying a contact insecticide instead of a systematic pesticide.
Based on a report compiled by an investigating team, dead water weevil larvae were found on the roots of some plants, the GRDB noted, adding that only one farmer, and 3.4 acres of rice fields were presently affected.
<<Guyana Times>> reported that close to 15 rice farmers were affected and lost much of their crop in the villages of Hague, Den Amstel, and several other areas.
Pic: Rice field
Caption: The present state of the Hague rice field, which has seen improvement