Just over half of the $400M recently set aside by President Bharrat Jagdeo to assist the rice sector will be distributed in the form of fertilizer vouchers.
Distribution of vouchers, according to a Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) press release yesterday, will commence in Region Two today. A total of $208M in fertilizer vouchers will be distributed under the Government Assistance Programme for Rice Farmers (GAPRF).
This programme consists of two phases and will utilize the funds set aside by the president to ease the difficulties being faced by the rice sector. GAPRF is being executed by the GRDB in collaboration with the Guyana Rice Producers’ Association (GRPA).
Vouchers, valued $2,200, GRDB General Manager Jagnarine Singh explained yesterday afternoon, will be given per acre for up to 30 acres. The vouchers, a GRDB press statement said, can be taken to companies identified by the GRPA and exchanged for fertilizers.
“One of the biggest hindrances” to getting the programme started, the GRDB said, is the incorrect information supplied to extension officers.
Since the officers were forced to verify information the data gathering process lasted longer.
Singh, via telephone, explained that farmers in Region Two will be the first to benefit from the programme since “verification” was completed there first. He further encouraged farmers to contact the GRDB (on telephone numbers: 226-8223/225-8727) for further information.
The second phase of GAPRF, the construction of drying floors, is expected to commence next January after the ownership of lands, air-marked for this purpose, is regularized.
Meanwhile, General Secretary of the GRPA Dharamkumar Seeraj told Stabroek News, also via telephone yesterday, farmers will be able to take fertilizer vouchers to leading suppliers like Geddes Grant and Caribbean Chemicals.
It was Seeraj who confirmed the programme is being funded by the Government of Guyana through $400M Jagdeo set aside during September to aid the industry.
The remainder of the funds, Seeraj explained, will be used for the second phase of the programme; this is, for the construction of the drying floors.
On September 18 at a press conference Jagdeo announced that the government had set aside $400M to assist the sector. Prior to the press conference at State House that day the president had met with farmers.
The Head of State had described the situation as very difficult for the farmers based on the high cost of inputs, the difficulties they have with some millers and the prices currently available for paddy.
The President had said he had asked the GRPA to hold consultations with farmers across the country to determine the best modes of utilizing these resources while also ensuring some of the problems the industry currently faces are addressed in a more definitive, long-term manner.
Jagdeo had said then that farmers will get back in touch with the government in the next few weeks to decide on the modalities for using the resources. Farmers, according to him, are looking to aggressively expand markets available for the industry.
The president had also said at the press conference that he was told this year the industry will probably be “producing more rice than we have ever produced in our history”. Therefore, the country has to expand markets and marketing efforts, he had declared.
