Approximately 600 farmers in Region Ten, who suffered losses due to devastating floods in May and June, received government flood relief grants on Saturday, according to the Department of Public Information (DPI).
In a report, the DPI said Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill led the distribution exercises at the Kwakwani Recreational Centre and the Hururu Primary School, where farmers came out in their numbers to receive the cash under the agriculture support programme.
The report noted that roughly $75 million will be distributed under the programme in the region this weekend, while a total of over $7 billion has been allocated to support farmers who suffered losses from the flooding countrywide.
Edghill was reported as saying that the money being disbursed is meant to be invested by the farmers to restart production.
“We want you to get back to work. We want you to keep the wheels of production turning. It’s our way of saying to you, we know you’ve been knocked down but knock down is not knock out. Knock down means you had a temporary misfortune. But we want you to get up back, bounce back, get out there to your farms your gardens, get your chickens going again. Keep the wheels of production going,” he was quoted as saying.
Edghill, who stressed that Guyana’s number one natural resource is its people, further said that the money must be properly invested to restart agricultural production in the region at the level it was, prior to the flooding.
Some of the recipients who spoke with the DPI said the money does not offset all the losses suffered but it would go a far way in helping them to restart production.
“I just want to say thanks to the government for the cash grant. The first $25,000, all the hamper that we are still receiving and I just want to say thanks so much for this money so that I could start back my lil farming, because I lost a lot and this mean a lot to me,” Avril Walker was quoted as saying.
Another, Allison Vanlewin of Hururu, who collected $50,000, also said the money would help her to restart her business.
“It brought a little bit of happiness because my kitchen garden that I had di flood out and I decided to move because the flood it actually come till at the bottom of the house and everything just went away and I decide to just go away…Thank you very much for looking out for us,” she said.
Meanwhile, Tricia Stephens, who is also a cash crop farmer said, she would use the money to buy fertilisers and seeds and return to farming the land. “This grant mean a lot for me because it will help me build back my farm, my father’s farm. So, I very grateful and thankful for the grant that I collected today.”
“I’m so grateful for this grant because all the hard work that I have done and I’ve put in to my small kitchen garden, it have been washed away from the flood. So, thank you for this. Hope it will help me to develop a better one,” another beneficiary, Joy Fredericks, added.
In a brief address to the nation, President Irfaan Ali on July 31st announced a series of relief measures, including billions in cash grants for households and farmers that were devastated by recent flooding countrywide.
“Farmers within the context of a homestead would receive $100,000 each. Those with kitchen gardens will receive $50,000 each. And households excluding homestead and kitchen garden will receive $50,000 each. The combined assistance to homestead farmers, kitchen gardens and households for these categories will be in excess of $3.5 billion,” he announced.
Ali said that while some large farmers were severely affected, especially in rice and poultry, the ceiling of assistance will not exceed $10 million for individual farmers.
Within those parameters the rice sector, which saw approximately 50,000 acres and 2000 farmers directly affected, will be offered assistance in four categories at a cost of more than $3.2 billion.
“For rice that was ready to harvest but lost in the floods, $80,000 per acre would be given to those farmers. For rice sowed and lost in the autumn crop, these farmers will receive $65,000 per acre and for land that was completely prepared but was not sowed, $45,000 per acre would be given to these farmers,” Ali announced, before adding that 60,000 bags of seed paddy would also be made available.
In the livestock industry, the 2,000 subsistence farmers, small farmers, medium farmers, and large-scale farmers affected will receive financial assistance in excess of $600 million.
