Report finds millers swindling rice farmers in several ways
-standards bureau to inspect equipment, prosecute
Stabroek News
April 23, 2004

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Massive irregularities at some rice mills are allowing millers to short-change and rob rice farmers, according to a report from the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS).

Director of the GNBS Dr Chatterpaul Ramcharran said there are mounting complaints from farmers about some millers short-changing them in terms of weights and grades for paddy purchased and the bureau is going to take stern action.

Ramcharran whose department recently conducted investigations into these issues, said during their inquiry complaints included tampering of scales in the industry to understate the net weight of the paddy contained in trucks and trailers.

During an interview with this newspaper yesterday, the director said the investigations followed numerous complaints from farmers and millers alike which forced the GNBS to establish a national rice sector committee, comprising all stakeholders. He said the committee was mandated to conduct a review of the rice sector, regarding testing, inspection and certification. It also had to work out what role each agency would perform and finally to ensure that each agency was accredited at accepted international standards.

Ramcharran said following this they conducted a survey in all of the rice-growing regions where both the rice farmers and millers raised a number of issues affecting them.

1,000 bags of paddy by fraud

According him, some farmers admitted knowing that they were being robbed of as many as 10-20 bags of paddy on average per load of paddy sold. He said the full extent of the problem would be appreciated when it is considered that some millers purchase as much as 100 loads of paddy per day. This means that they can obtain at least 1,000 bags of paddy by fraud. The average price for a bag of paddy is estimated at $1,000.

Moreover, Ramcharran said, farmers have also complained about tampering with moisture-testing equipment to increase the moisture contained in the paddy so that the miller can deduct extra per bag beyond the established benchmark of 143 lbs per bag. According to reports farmers can lose as much as eight bags per trailer.

Ramcharran said there has also been tampering with the dockage to overstate the weight of extraneous materials such as straw and chaff, which are mixed with the good paddy grains. This, according to Ramcharran, could account for approximately 15-25 lbs per bag. Farmers can lose a further 8-12 bags per trailer in this way.

Then there is also tampering with the actual grading of the paddy which is carried out entirely by the millers or their employees. And investigations have shown that the quantity of unwanted constituents such as red rice, chalky grains and discoloured grains are most times overstated.

In addition, the GNBS director said, farmers seriously questioned the method of sampling the paddy since testing done with unrepresentative samples would result in poor grades thereby cheating the farmers. A farmer can lose as much as $100-$500 for every bag of paddy in this case.

Ramcharran further noted that millers would usually extract a penalty in terms of extra pounds per bag for broken grains, even though this is not a gradable factor. Farmers reported that to obtain a higher broken grain factor, millers at times would deliberately break the grains by repeating the 'shelling out' process more than necessary.

$72,000 per day scam

The director also explained that when the net weight of the load of paddy is converted to bags, if the computation shows 100.5 bags, the half bag is taken by the miller and the farmer is not paid for it. This means that if 100 loads of paddy are purchased per day, the miller would obtain 50 bags of paddy free, amounting to as much as $72,000 per day.

The director noted that farmers had the general feeling that they were treated with little respect by millers who have a "take-it or leave-it" attitude regarding the price they offer for paddy.

He said farmers are sometimes verbally or even physically abused when they ask questions and some of them feel that there is no one to represent their interest at the mills.

Agricultural practices

On the other hand, Ram-charran pointed out, some millers complained about poor quality paddy being supplied to the mills by farmers and noted the implications of this for their operations. The GNBS report observed that there is a strained relationship between the farmers and the millers, but suggested there must be harmonious relationships in the industry.

Ramcharran said the industry has to become efficient in order to compete in the international market. He pointed out that farmers must implement good agricultural practices consistently in order to produce better quality paddy.

Standards bureau to act

Meanwhile, the GNBS is about to purchase a truck with a hoist and bulk weights which would be used across the country to check and test the accuracy of bulk scales. The bureau will do this before each rice crop, according to Ramcharran, and will also conduct surveillance of the mills to ensure that they maintain the calibration of the scales. There will also be surprise visits and if any miller is found wanting his digital processing unit will be seized. The bureau will also move to the courts to have the defaulting millers prosecuted.

Ramcharran said too that millers have to ensure that their mill is calibrated before each crop and the certificate must be posted up in the scale house or quality control laboratory for farmers to see. The GNBS director said there are eight mechanical scales in the industry at present and these would have to be converted to electronic scales to minimise any possibility of tampering.

Additionally, the GNBS is demanding that records on all scales be maintained by the millers, including data on repairs, servicing and calibration.

Further, farmers must witness the weighing of their paddy and the miller must allow them into the lab area to do this, Ramcharran said, adding that all moisture meters would have to be calibrated before each crop and the certificate posted up.

And each miller is required to have a licensed grader and proper records must be kept, the director added. (Nigel Williams)