Rice farmers are returning to acreage that they couldn’t afford to cultivate in the past but at the same time they are proceeding cautiously when it comes to capitalisation, now that the price for paddy is booming.
This is according to Secretary of the Rice Producers Association (RPA) Dharamkumar Seeraj.
World market prices for rice have soared because of increased demand among other factors, coming together with increased prices for agricultural produce. Rice on the local market has topped over $6,000 a bag depending on the grade of the product.
He said that the prices being earned now enable farmers to “fill the holes” and pay off debt for the past four years or so of poor prices and high operational costs.
Seeraj pointed out that a number of farmers in the past couldn’t cultivate all of the acreage that they had and the extra earnings that they make now go towards paying their debts to the bank.
But he said that more and more farmers, especially in Regions Five and Six, are finding it possible to now cultivate those lands which in the past they left untouched because of constraints. He said that this is also the case in places like Leguan and Wakenaam in the Essequibo River.
According to Seeraj, rice farmers are now trying to work previously uncultivated rice plots and noted that out of the 200 acres that some farmers have, they could have only afforded to plant 50 to 60 acres before now.
Seeraj said that about 12,000 to 15,000 acres of rice lands in Regions Five and Six and in Leguan and Wakenaam will be cultivated in the near term.
Asked whether the high prices offered for rice at the moment mean that farmers could make capital investments, Seeraj said that measured and cautious investments are being made by some farmers. He said that despite the present high paddy prices, the farmers still have the past four years of investments to pay for.
He said that during the period around 1996–1997, many rice farmers went overboard and made a lot of capital investments. He said that since then, those machines would have been deemed obsolete and worthless in terms of book value because of depreciation.
Further, he said that the present rains are hampering the harvesting and drying process, indicating that the 2008 May/June rains, if early, will make matters worse for rice farmers and millers.
He said too that the rains are affecting the farm-to-market dams, making it difficult for the paddy trucks and tractors to get from the fields to the mills.
“The rains mean additional hardships for us,” said Seeraj. “Right now we cannot do any harvesting…we are hoping [for the rains to ease],” he said.
Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud said that there should be a total of 15,000 to 20,000 acres of additional rice lands put under cultivation for the coming crop. He said that farmers are still being advised to diversify so as to reap maximum returns from their lands.
The Minister also stated that due to the development of the sector and various interventions, yields have also increased.
