Close to 15 rice farmers and 120 acres of land are currently affected in what appears to be a termite infestation on the present rice crop in villages along the West Coast of Demerara. Hague, Den Amstel, and several other villages appear to be hardest hit.
According to the farmers, termites began feeding on their crops about one month ago. Omar Dhanny, a farmer who cultivates about seven acres of land at Hague, said, “A lot of farmers struggling with the same problem. Nobody don’t really know what to do; and the research, we report this thing to the GRDB, (Guyana Rice Development Board) and they sent two extension officers, but nobody like scientists didn’t come around as yet to assist us with our struggles”.
He added, “We farmers nah got that qualifications…they got to get somebody with that knowledge to just check it out”.
Dhanny said he and other farmers have exhausted almost every effort to address the situation, but to no avail. In the same breath, he explained how much the
One of the affected rice fields
insects have already cost him.
“This here affects me a lot, because this amount of rice here what damage for me, I already (gone) through all the doses of fertiliser and I already sprayed about six times. If you calculate, it is a lot of money, and nobody don’t know if we gonna get anything from the Rice Development Board,” he pointed out.
The farmer noted that extension officers from the GRDB Office in Region Three had visited and advised that they spray the crops with a specific pesticide, but this remedy also failed.
Additionally, he said an ex-staffer who was attached to the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) has been trying to help the farmers identify the issue and, hopefully, find a solution.
Dhanny informed that the ex-NAREI official had said there is some brown plant hopper sucking the rice. “They find that some are going on the rice lands, and he recommend some drug for us to spray. We try the drugs already for about two days now”.
Another farmer, Ganga Persaud, who has been planting rice for about 60 years in the same area, noted that he has never seen such a devastating termite.
Persaud explained that he fears the termite may have an immense effect on the entire rice industry.
He stated, “We had this guy from NAREI that came and he captured a few insects, which was like tiny brown grass hopper. He tell us that the insects is go down into the plant soil and suck away the nutrients, which causes the plants to lose their colour and so on”.
The frustrated farmer added that when officials from the GRDB Office in Region Three visited their farm lands, they did not find anything, but merely recommended a pesticide.
Furthermore, “I plant rice and it is my main source of income. If the people does not come to look after it, we may suffer immensely…the entire rice industry in the country may suffer,” the man predicted.
He argued that merely taking samples is not good enough; in this regard, he thinks
This image shows the discoloration of the rice crops which are stunted
agronomists and plant pathologists have failed to give answers.
In an almost frightened tone the farmer related, “It seems as if the insects have gained resilience against pesticides, because we have tried almost everything…we can till the soil, but we cannot get rid of these things”.
It is against that backdrop that the farmers are calling for urgent attention to be given to the specific situation. Several efforts made by this newspaper to contact the GRDB proved futile.
