Small rice farmers seeking help as cows feast on crop

…300 farmers at the mercy of 150 cows

By Andrew Carmichael

Small rice farmers on the Corentyne, in Berbice, are calling for the urgent intervention of the Agriculture Ministry or regional officials in order to save their crops from cattle.

The animals have been invading rice fields and destroying the crops. Most of these farmers cultivate five acres or less of rice and could see production being reduced by 40 per cent if assistance is not immediate.
Reports are that the animals were removed from Cookrite Savannah during the floods last year and taken to the reef, which is no longer being used for crop farming.  Each of the villages between Number 43 and 74 has about 40 acres of land – referred to as the second depth which was once coconut estates and cash crop farms. However, over the past decade, those lands have become abandoned since most of its owners have migrated.
The area is not fenced and is now home to cattle which are grazing in the rice fields. Some of the farmers are estimating the yield of 30 bags per acre and are fearful that the cows will eat an average of 12 bags of paddy from every acre. Their fears worsen as it will not only be low production but a poor quality of rice which will attract the lowest prices from millers.
Some of the farmers are calling on the Government to fence the area while others are calling on authorities to issue notices to the cattle farmers.
Shazam Moheed, who cultivates five acres at Number 55 Village, told Guyana Times that every afternoon, he reinforces the fence around his rice farm, but on several occasions, the animals are in his field by the next day. During the last crop, he only reaped three acres of the lands he cultivated, which amounted to 70 bags instead of an estimated 90 bags.
He is urging cattle owners to act more responsibly.
Another framer of the same village, Amjad Ally, who cultivates a similar acreage, explained that the farmers have erected protective makeshift fences but it is not helping. “We put wire fence across the trench but the cow dem breaking it and going and eat out the rice. Now that the rice ready to bear, they eating the rice,” he told this publication.
He said they have tried numerous times to capture the rice eating animals but to no avail.
Meanwhile, Amarnath Potamber, who has 35 acres of rice under cultivation at Number 55 Village, and also owns three dozen heads of cattle, noted that it is only a few cattle owners who are not taking care of their animals.
“Right now I lost about 40 bags of paddy already. We try to avoid them from going into the rice but they still breaking and go in. This happening about five years now.”
The farmers are estimating each bag of paddy lost at $3000.
According to the farmers who spoke with Guyana Times, they have tried to get the Rice Producers Association (RPA) to engage the errant cattle farmers but to no avail.
According to Potamber, the errant cattle farmers should be given notices.
Meanwhile, one of the errant cattle farmers, who asked not to be identified, told this publication that because of cattle rustling in Berbice, he is forced into keeping his animals in the area. “When you fence them up people can easily come and catch what they want and sell them and you get nothing.
Speaking with this publication, Nandkumar Goberdhan of Number 56 Village who has seven and a half acres under rice cultivation said many of those who have cows are themselves rice farmers. However, their farms are to the back and as such, they display a “don’t care” attitude since they have large rice cultivations. The fields the cows invade are the smaller rice fields located in the front of the cultivation areas.
Meanwhile, Ramgolam Singh, a former Extension officer of the RPA, who cultivates over 100 acres at Number 55 Village believes that the only solution to the problem is for the Government to intervene and erect two fences approximately 2500 rods each. One fence he explained will be placed in the Savannah (Number 52-66) cattle pasture and one on the Government reserve between homestead farm and the rice lands.