With more than 4,000 acres of rice already dead in the Mahaicony and Mahaica areas and the crop cycle in the harvesting stage, the Mahaica-Mahaicony-Abary Agriculture Development Authority (MMA-ADA) has decided to cease the pumping of water into the system.
Speaking to Stabroek News yesterday, after a meeting with several farmers and representatives from the MMA, Region 5 Chairman Vickchand Ramphal said that while majority of the farmers would have lost their crops and are no long thinking about saving anything and only looking to receive help from the government to start the next cycle, there are some 600 acres in the two areas that would die if pumping stops. “The representative from the MMA met with them [rice farmers] also and he would’ve indicated that the MMA is no longer going to put water into the system from Wednesday,” he said, pointing out that the MMA will remove the pumps.
He said that there are still several rice, cash crop, and cattle farmers that would suffer if the water is stopped. “…Those farmers will now have to desist from saving their crops because they will not get water…,” he added, stating that there are about 200 acres in the