Story and photos by Shabna Ullah
Rice was very much in evidence at Tempe, West Coast Berbice with some farmers drying paddy in their yards or on the roadways.
Tractors or other agricultural machinery were in almost every yard while trucks could be seen transporting paddy from the backdam to the rice mills.
A farmer, Davidson, was drying seed paddy along the roadway and a relative, Garfield Nicholson who was visiting from overseas was assisting him. He would use it to replant his crop, he said.
He cultivates 35 acres and sells the paddy to Hakh Rice Mill at Golden Grove. This crop was “not too bad,” except that “the Gandhi fatigue a lot of farmers” and they incurred extra expense to spray it.
He said farmers were pleased with the service at the mill and that the owners “are the best in the country… they save a lot of farmers. If you need money to spray or make dam, they would give an advance and they give diesel when we need it.”
He just wished the paddy price was higher. Farmers were earning $3,500 per bag earlier in the crop but that figure