Chairman of the Essequibo Paddy Farmers Association (EPFA), Naithram (only name) and other rice farmers met with the GRDB and the RPA on Saturday and the growers called for a water schedule and lamented the ongoing problem of getting payments from millers.
Naithram stated that the Essequibo Coast meeting was relevant as the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) and the Rice Producers Association (RPA) were interested in farmers’ perspectives on the harvest while addressing issues.
Naithram told Stabroek News that a key area which needed further development was a water schedule to allow farmers to more accurately plan their harvest. He said that “we need a water schedule…the entire area can have one schedule and we would know when water is coming and to which area it will be at what time.”
Naithram noted that the GRDB and the RPA listened to the various ideas proposed but that there were still unanswered questions in relation to issues which began in April when Essequibo farmers protested paddy prices and delayed payment from millers. He said that “I had to raise the issue of the Rice Factory Act again. What we want to see in writing and reflected in the act is millers have to pay on time and there needs to be some kind of requirement before a miller receives a licence that they have to have 50 percent of the cash to purchase paddy”. He continued that millers would often complain they were cash-strapped when it was time to pay for paddy which meant farmers received next to nothing for top grade paddy.
The Chairman of the EPFA stated that he chose to raise the issues with the GRDB and the RPA again in the hopes of getting the attention of Dr Leslie Ramsammy, the agriculture minister. He said that back in June the association had requested a sit down with the minister but to date the minister has not made contact. “I am a farmer. There is this notion that since I am an AFC councillor that this association is political but I am a rice farmer and this group represents rice farmers,” Naithram said. He added that the minister had met with the association once before just after farmers went on strike along the Essequibo coast protesting paddy prices, “that was the one and only time he met with us.”
The EPFA chairman stated that he was interested in a meeting with the minister to discuss what positive changes have happened since the protesting and since changes were promised and which areas still needed addressing. He noted that the GRDB had in fact trained multiple farmers on how to effectively grade paddy. Naithram noted that the EPFA has also begun to undertake that work and has held seminars on what farmers need to be aware of prior to taking paddy to millers.
He said that while millers were getting their requirements now, farmers were still receiving the short end of the stick. “We are still waiting on the millers to see if all the systems were in place and inspected like the equipment if they are standard,” Naithram continued. He told Stabroek News that moisture machines and dockage machines were to be inspected by the ministry to check if they were working correctly, but that was yet to be done almost four months since famers first picketed.
Meanwhile, he noted that farmers who received a less than favourable price for their paddy, some received as little as $2000 when they were expecting up to $4000 per bag, were given fertilizer by the ministry to assist with the next harvest. “The fertilizer, I don’t know how much was actually given but around 200 bags were bad,” Naithram said. He told this publication that “some of the fertiliser was bad, it looked like boulders”. He said that “it couldn’t be used, they had given bags but the bags didn’t have anything on it made me think that the fertiliser was left over from GuySuCo, it didn’t have nutrition content written anywhere.”
Naithram said that the bad fertiliser was left to waste because it was so heavily “crystallized” and farmers could do nothing with it. “Some of the pieces were hard and about 12 inches or so, you would need to break it apart, but then it was so hard the nutrition was mostly gone so [it was] wasted.”
He commented that since the original protesting back in April the ministry had agreed to send an investigative team and collect data however the work was slow. He said that millers were still at an advantage and that farmers were still playing catch up. He said that the good that was being done on behalf of the ministry needed to be expedited.
