Dear Editor,
We the farmers who have attached our signatures below are peeved about some concerns which are seriously affecting us. Firstly, a number of rice farmers have not yet been paid for the last crop. We have been promised payment, but every time we go we are greeted by a new date for payment. In a very few cases we have been given paltry sums. The above goes for many rice mills on the Essequibo Coast.
Secondly, a lot of mills have not sold much rice since they made their purchase of paddy. If this continues then a frightening situation awaits farmers when they start to reap paddy from next month.
Paddy is perishable, and if a market is not found quickly then the rice industry will have an uncertain future.
Farmers would like the Ministry of Agriculture to look into the situation and rectify it before there are serious social, economic and political consequences.
Finally, I would like to state that some of the millers have sold some rice already on the international market. To our consternation the payments they received are being converted for personal use, rather than some money being paid to cash-strapped farmers. Farmers have financial commitments and families to take care of, and it is hard for them to survive without their income in an era of escalating prices.
The farmers crave the indulgence of the Minister of Agriculture in relation to this matter.
Yours faithfully,
P. Shivprasad
N Ram
Deonarazon Singh
Deonaraine
Pooran Lall
and 43 others
