Sunnier days for rice farmers
- rain fails to cloud production and improved prices
By Johann Earle
Stabroek News
June 17, 2004
The rice industry resisted bad weather and flooding to turn in a good spring crop, says General Secretary of the Rice Producers' Association Dharamkumar Seeraj.
And he said the industry could be looking at better times on the back of higher international prices.
But he has also warned that there needs to be better maintenance of the country's drainage systems. Some 6,185 hectares of land was sown for this crop and to date over 80% was harvested.
Speaking to Stabroek News last week, Seeraj said in Region Two (Pomeroon/ Supernaam) farmers managed to harvest all 12,870 hectares. Seeraj said this returned just under one million bags of paddy with an average yield of 74 bags per hectare.
In Region Three (Essequibo Islands/West Demerara) there is still 180 hectares of paddy to be harvested mainly in the areas of Den Amstel, Leguan and Wakenaam. Seeraj pointed out that harvesting in these areas was delayed because of rain and flooded fields. A total of 8,900 hectares was projected but only 8,340 was actually sown. According to Seeraj, the rice that was sown is of fairly good quality. He observed, however, that places such as Leguan would suffer due to flooding. The overall yield in the region was 62 bags per hectare which was slightly lower than what was projected.
For Region Four (Demerara/Mahaica) 2720 hectares of land was harvested and the yield was listed at 74 bags per hectare.
In Region Five, 25,000 hectares have been harvested, returning 1.7M bags. Seeraj said farmers collectively sowed 26,000 hectares of land. He said there is still some level of harvesting to be done in the riverain areas such as Abary, Mahaica and Mahaicony.
For Region Six, 13,900 hectares have been harvested out of 14,050 sown. He said there were losses due to stray cattle invading rice fields, flooding in Black Bush Polder and Crabwood Creek and other factors. However, the region returned an overall yield of 67.5 bags per hectare.
Despite the losses, Seeraj said the return is just about what was projected.
Addressing the issue of poor drainage, Seeraj said the industry continues to be affected by lack of punctuality in the clearing out of channels and cleaning of drainage canals. Seeraj said what is even more distressing is that whenever approached the regional and neighbourhood democratic councils would give the same excuse that there was no money and that the council was awaiting budgetary allocations.
Seeraj pointed out that while some areas are susceptible to flooding, if better care of drainage projects was undertaken, some of the areas that had been affected would not have suffered.
With regard to the relationship between farmers and millers, Seeraj said the one rice company that continues to pay farmers months after they supplied their paddy is the Alesie Group of Companies. According to Seeraj, while the company's price is about average, the timeliness of payments is not good.
Seeraj said overall payments for paddy have greatly improved, because of higher prices on the international markets.
Amidst all of this, Seeraj cautioned that the cost for some vital inputs like fuel have skyrocketed, bringing added burden to the farmers and millers. On the other hand, prices for some fertilisers have dropped.
"However, we are still awaiting the arrival of a much publicised supply of urea from the National Credit Union (NCU)."
Seeraj told this newspaper that in discussions with the RPA and farmers the NCU had promised to import a large quantity of urea to be sold at low prices. This has not been done so far and Seeraj declared that he was very disappointed, since the RPA as well as the farmers were eagerly looking forward to the supply. Seeraj said the general feeling among the farmers is one of satisfaction, noting that they have been receiving timelier payments.
"Everybody is in a better frame of mind, prices have been good and payments a bit more timely, so you can say it was a good crop for farmers," Seeraj said.
He said the RPA along with the Guyana Rice Development Board would continue to press for proper verification of scales and other machines at rice mills.
He noted that the RPA and the Guyana Rice Development Board had cause to close down a mill in Mahaicony because of a defective scale. He said the owners have since replaced the scale.
He added that a lot of millers have transparent systems but there are others who usually resist RPA officers checking their mills.
"What the RPA wants to develop is... honesty and accountability by both the farmers and millers."