Region Two’s rice farmers have started harvesting their crops and remain hopeful that they will receive a good price and prompt payment from millers.
Harvesting has commenced in the extreme north and some sections of the Essequibo Coast. Farmers in villages such as Golden Fleece, Abram Zuil, Aberdeen, Better Success, Colombia, and Somerset and Berks have been utilising the sunny weather conditions to transport their harvests from the fields and taking them to leading mills in the region.
Several rice farmers in the south of the coast, who have almost one week more for their fields to ripen, have told Stabroek News that they are “clueless” as to the price that will be given by millers. Dyal Singh, a rice farmer from Golden Fleece, said rice farmers most times take their harvests to millers without even knowing the price.