It is evidently not by accident that in one of his relatively early public presentations substantively connected to the country’s economy President David Granger has signalled his concern for the challenges confronting the rice industry and his government’s interest in supporting the sector in its anticipated response to the problem.
For the coalition government, rice farmers are an important constituency for two important reasons. The first has to do with the politics of the industry. The conventional wisdom that the previous administration might have considered rice farmers to be part of their constituency has been undermined by the problems which the farmers have faced in recent years, not least the considerable delays in being paid for their paddy and the President and his advisors understand that the moment might be opportune to alter that particular conventional (political) wisdom.
The other more recent concern has to do with the belated public announcement that after November, the Caracas PetroCaribe market will no longer exist, a circumstance that will saddle the industry with hundreds of tonnes of rice to sell on a less than hospitable international market.
At the Arthur Chung Convention Centre on Monday, the President sought to send a strong message of support to rice farmers, asserting that the sector was “too big to fail.” At the same time he called for “increased competitiveness, more markets and reduction in production and transportation costs.”
Greater competitiveness and reduced transportation costs can only derive from the collaborative efforts of the farmers and the government, the latter’s role being to provide the farming communities with the infrastructure which they need to help the industry improve its efficiency. As far as selling more rice on the international market is concerned that too will depend on the measures that government is prepared to take, through the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) to broaden the country’s market base. That, we already know, will not be easy.
When last this newspaper spoke with the GRDB several months ago we learnt that the entity had been engaged in discourses with potential buyers in Africa, including Ghana and that deals might have been close to being struck. While the GRDB may be in a state of flux at this time the current rice emergency points to the need to restore the entity to a condition of normalcy in the shortest possible time and this is something that we hope the government appreciates.
As for bringing an end to the condition of nervousness that confronts the rice industry at this time, the President, we believe, understands that the prevailing condition of anxiety amongst rice farmers derives from a circumstance in which many of them have had to deal with a decline in their standards of living, high interest rates accruing from outstanding loan repayments and other overdue debt repayments otherwise associated with servicing their rice crops. That anxiety will only be eased after there are positive indications that new markets are being aggressively sought and found.
The opportunity afforded by the recent rice forum to create a relationship of trust between the new administration and the rice industry is one that neither side can afford to miss. On the President’s part it really is a matter of ensuring that what he had to say to the farmers at the Convention Centre is translated into action of the part of the Ministry of Agriculture, the GRDB and the government as a whole As for rice farmers the signal from the President is that the circumstances require that they too raise their game if the industry is to come through its present travails.
