The Guyana Rice Development Board’s (GRDB) help to farmers in their battle against the infestation of paddy bugs in Region Two and other areas helped tremendously in reducing the loss of rice.
This pronouncement was made by the head of the Essequibo Paddy Farmers Association, Naith Ram, on the GRDB weekly production – This Week in Agriculture – that was uploaded to the Board’s Facebook and YouTube pages on Thursday.
At the starting of this year’s first crop, farmers were faced with irrigation issues as well as a paddy bug infestation that threatened the crop mostly in Region Two.
“This crop that we are in was very (challenging) for us but the Government of the day made significant contributions in assisting farmers. To start with, the Government had expended over $40 million in assisting in terms of pumping water. Had it not been for the Government a lot of rice crops would have been lost in Region Two,” Ram said.