Dear Editor,
I write on the issue of a recent statement made by the Minister of Agriculture on the electronic media that rice farmers across the country suffered only a paltry 4% losses following the El Niño dry-weather rice crop. I must say that this is a fallacy and a political manoeuvre to deceive the nation. Out of some degree of respect for Minister Noel Holder’s agriculture portfolio, I would like him to say how he got his statistical information to arrive at a laughable 4% as having been lost in rice cultivation areas countrywide.
The gathering of statistical information calls for a great deal of groundwork involving field visitation. The statistical end product comes through the professional personnel of GRDB.
Almost all the relevant information comes from the farmers’ fields, and checking the fields with crops and those with no crop at all. Also the millers’ intake has to be checked for a particular crop. We must consider the average yield per acre in the respective regions, and in order for us to have the right perspective on the last rice crop we have to find the average yield per acre countrywide. This exercise if undertaken will materialize in visits to all the mills and the RPA outlets for buying and selling seedlings, and reference to a suggested figure all farmers keep for their own use. This might be a tedious task but it is the only way we would have our facts right.
Poorly paid public servants would not do the kind of work that our country needs to move on progressively. If consideration is not given to our extension personnel we may very well start losing them soon.
However, if for whatever reason the Minister cannot respond to my letter, I shall call upon Mr Nizam Hassan to fill me in with an answer. After all this gentleman is the General Manager of GRDB and he has not been doing well since he took over the stewardship of that institution. Service is what we need and service is what we are denied.
Yours faithfully,
Ganga Persaud
