…as over 1000 acres remain uncultivated in Region 2
By Lakhram Bhagirat
For years, rice farmers have been battling fluctuating paddy prices, crop infestation, flooded rice fields and a whole host of other issues, but for the farmers in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), those issues seem never-ending and to add to that, they have to now battle the poor infrastructure to cultivate and access their fields.
Regional Vice Chairperson Nandranie Coonjah explained that the farmers have been complaining about the lack of maintenance of the roads leading into their farms, saying very little is being done to assist them at the national level. She explained that currently, there are over 35,000 acres of rice under cultivation in the region, noting that this number represented a decline of over 1000 acres.
“Over 1000 acres… the farmers did not go into the fields. This is because of bad lands. Bad lands is a spill off of the intrusion of salt water from the previous crop. So after salt water came into the rice land, they had lots of acres that were burnt so the farmers went back for one crop to plow and sow again. When they did this they came in very late so at the time of harvesting, they reaped late and the land damaged up so they could not have gone in back. The farmers are also calling for some intervention from the Government because nothing is being done to assist them,” she related.
She further related that the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) has been of tremendous help to the farmers in maintaining the drainage channels and providing technical support. However, Coonjah added there is only so much the Authority could do, hence the reason she would have made representation to the Communities Ministry for the provision of two excavators to aid the work of the NDIA to boost the region’s capacity.
“The NDIA is not agreeing to work in undeclared areas and the farmers in the undeclared area have our concerns because they have a right to a livelihood, the region doesn’t have the capacity. We have to wait to see if we get the excavator but we saw nothing in the (2018) budget,” Coonjah related.
The Regional Vice Chairperson explained that undeclared areas refer to areas not in the control of the regional administration.
Rice farmers have since complained of the region’s inability to properly manage the dams that access their farmlands. On a visit to the region, several of the dams were in deplorable conditions, as farmers were forced to use the already badly deteriorated dams to spray insecticides on their growing rice plants.
The farmers are also calling for increased cooperation with the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) to tackle the production and protection aspects of their crop. Additionally, they related that they would like to see more emphasis being place on the development of the rice industry.
“We can produce the rice, but we don’t have the market for it and that is what affecting us and we got to work together man,” farmer Mohindra Persaud told this newspaper.
To further cement the farmers’ plight, Regional Chairman Devanand Ramdatt said more that 80 per cent of the region’s 50,000 plus residents are directly or indirectly connected to the rice industry. He noted that the disparity in the prices for paddy is one of the major contributing factors for the lack of motivation for rice farmers to return to the fields.
“Before 2015 and the early part of 2015, the price per bag of paddy was around $3500 and now it has reduced significantly. It is around $2200 and below. I’ve personally had discussions with the Minister of Agriculture asking him to have more interactions with our rice farmers of this region so that we can have more farmers or have a clearer understanding of what is happening in the industry and maybe potentials for the industry to be further enhanced and developed,” he explained.
He noted that despite his request, the Agriculture Minister visited the region no more than three occasions in the past year, despite it being one of Guyana’s premiere agricultural regions.
“We need to develop strategies to address in the first case the issue affecting the rice sector and here is where the Ministry with responsibility for agriculture and the Guyana Rice Development Board, they need to meaningfully engage all key stakeholders so that we may have a very clear understanding as to where the future of this industry is going,” Ramdatt added.
Finance Minister Winston Jordan in his 2018 Budget presentation noted that the rice industry was expected to record an output of 602,087 tonnes for 2017, an increase of 12.7 per cent over 2016. He credited the increase mainly to an additional 14,000 hectares planted for the 2017 spring crop and a further 74,481 hectares planted in the autumn crop.
