Rice farmers must mechanise and seek lower interest rates – RPA Head

…as rice prices fall internationally

President of the Rice Producers Association (RPA) Leeka Rambrich, is urging rice farmers to pay careful attention to their investments. He says there is need for those farmers to seek maximum output from minimum investment. Rambrich’s comments come amidst decreasing rice prices on the world market.
Addressing rice farmers at Number 63 Village, Corentyne, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), where Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha announced that millers had agreed to pay no less than $4,000 for a 143-pound bag of paddy, Rambrich cautioned farmers to be mindful of their investments as rice prices continue to decline.

“We have to start mechanising and cut all of the corners to ensure that we do well. We have to make sure that we have maximum yield with minimum cost.”
He pointed out that farmers must place emphasis on the best possible interest rates available, and not on the easy access to funding.
“…and the minimum cost would come when farmers have to look for lower interest cost rather than going to the millers and obtain high interest rates. A miller would take an overdraft from a bank and buy fertiliser and chemicals and give to farmers at a high interest rate and make a profit from you, and when you sell your rice to him, he will make a profit as well,” Rambrich, who is himself both a rice farmer and miller, explained.

“So we as farmers have to stand up and step consciously. Before going to a miller and take fertiliser, seeds, or whatever you take from them – please, I advise you, as the price of rice is trickling down internationally, please look at your cost,” he emphasised, noting that this is one way of cutting cost.
The other way for rice farmers to cut cost, the RPA head said, is for them to start to mechanise their cultivation.
“Mechanisation is the way forward, and if we want to stay in rice with a lower price and compete internationally, we have to start to mechanise and produce rice below $48,000 a tonne,” he explained to the farmers.
“My advice to you is to look at your cost and have a projection for the next crop because prices will keep dropping.”