AGRICULTURE MINISTER Navin Chandarpal has assured rice farmers that the Government is working assiduously at reaching an agreement with commercial banks on relief measures for those severely indebted due to circumstances outside of their control.

At a meeting with farmers in Berbice over the weekend, the Minister said that some of these measures may include a write-off of interest accumulated on loans to rice farmers, the rescheduling of payments on original loans at lower interest rates as well as the provision of new loans as working capital.

Chandarpal said that the prospects for a resolution of the state of indebtedness of rice farmers were at the moment very encouraging.

He, however, reminded farmers that it was not the Government they owed but the banks and in the end it would be the banks which would have to respond and agree with Government proposals so that the debt relief measures can be put into effect.

Chandarpal said that a selfish approach among farmers had contributed to some extent to the development of the bad debts situation.

He warned that the industry will continue to have problems if farmers do not re-embrace the spirit of cooperation and cooperativism that had served them so well in the past.

Minister Chandarpal made the comments while addressing a conference for rice farmers organised by the Guyana Rice Producer's Association (GRPA) to mark its 55th anniversary.

The venue was at the Bush Lot Secondary School, West Coast Berbice.

Chandarpal stressed that the Government was firmly of the view that whether times were good or bad, the rice industry is of tremendous economic significance to Guyana.

He said that from the perspective of the People's Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/Civic) administration, the issue of what happens to the rice industry is a very serious one for which the Government is prepared to take all the steps possible for it to be rectified.

The Minister identified the drop in the price of paddy to less than half of that obtained six years ago, the loss of some preferential markets and

adverse weather conditions, such as El Nino and then La Nina, as some of the major contributing factors to the difficult times the industry is passing through.

Minister Chandarpal said that when the industry was on the upswing between 1992 and 1996 there had been a great deal of enthusiasm for the sector and several farmers had gone into expansion of their rice production activities.

He said that some time after, many farmers who had acquired capital equipment through loans from the banks had found that their expectations on the basis of which they were planning to repay those debts had been shattered because of the combination of plummeting prices and bad weather conditions.

This was the situation, he said, which led to what the Rice Crisis Committee had described as the burden of debt.

He said that even as the Government was moving to help farmers get back onto their feet, they recognised that there were many people who took loans but did not put all this money into the rice sector.

Chandarpal stressed that the small farmers who took loans and genuinely put their money into crops will have a greater level of write-offs than those who took large sums and could not show to what extent all of the money borrowed went into the industry.

He warned that debt relief notwithstanding, all the players involved would need to conduct an honest and critical examination of other factors which led to the bad debt situation and take steps to avoid a recurrence.

"If not, these debt relief measures may eventually prove to be meaningless," he said. The theme of the one day Conference was "Rice: Our Heritage, Our Future".

The programme included presentations by Minister of Crops, Livestock and Fisheries, Mr. Satyadeow Sawh and Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Mr. Manzoor Nadir.

Other speakers included Mr. Rudolph Gajraj, Chairman of the MMA/ADA scheme, Mr. Harri Bhajan, President of the Guyana Rice Millers/Exporters Development Association, Mr. Fizal Sattar, Chairman of the Guyana National Cooperative Bank and Mr. D. Seeraj, General Secretary of the GRPA.

Farmers used the opportunity to raise several complaints about problems affecting paddy production in West Berbice and representatives present addressed these issues.

Minister Chandarpal advised farmers that they need to work on strengthening linkages between the GRPA and other groups such as the MMA/ADA, the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils, the regional administration and the National Drainage and Irrigation Board.

He also cautioned that they must be sure that their representations were reflective of the needs of the community in general and not just a few individuals.

During the proceedings, the meeting observed one minute of silence in honour of GRPA stalwart Chattarpaul Singh also known as "Kai" of Strathavon, East Coast Demerara who died on September 3 when the tractor he was driving turned turtle and pinned him underneath.

Seeraj told the meeting that Singh was using the tractor to grade an access dam at Cane Grove, also on the East Coast, preparatory to rice harvesting in the area when the fatal accident occurred.

The proceedings were chaired by Mr. Arzaman Haniff, Chairman of the Bath /Woodley Park Neighbourhood Democratic Council.