Dear Editor,
I hope this letter can reach the eyes of the Government, the Minister of Agriculture and the Chairman and Board of Directors of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB).
Farmers continue to face grave problems with the seed paddy purchased from the GRDB, Burma Rice Research Station over the past year.
On numerous occasions several hundred bags of seed paddy purchased from the GRDB, Burma Rice Research Station did not germinate or if it germinated the % germination was far below the requisite levels. When this happens the farmers suffer the losses or the board suffers the loss in revenue.
It is alleged that in the seed production, standard operating procedures were not adhered to resulting in either the seeds not being harvested at the correct time from the fields, at the correct moisture content, or dried and stored properly leading to damage of the embryo in the seed.
Further, the required labels on the bags to tell the quality of seed paddy and % germination of the seed lot were totally absent. So farmers do not have an option but to accept what was in the bag. Fortunately I had a close examination of the poor germinating seed paddy and saw evidence of a large amount of shelled grains, broken grains, pieces of clay soil and discoloured grains present in the bags of seed paddy sold as C1 and C11 grade.
The time has come for the Government, the Minister of Agriculture, Hon. Noel Holder, the Chairman and Board of Directors of GRDB to get involved and seriously look into this present situation and stop taking these lame excuses as to why the seed paddy quality provided to farmers is not up to standard from the Burma Rice Research Station since the board is spending large sums of money om seed paddy production every year.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address supplied)
