Interviews and photos by Subhana Shiwmangal and Bebi Oosman
Stabroek News spoke to members of the public in the areas of Lesbeholden, Mibicuri, Johanna and Yakusari in Black Bush Polder, Corentyne about the cost of living and how it is affecting them. The following are their comments:
Zameel Rahamat, a 65-year-old Cash crop farmer: `Cost of living is high in the country and it is affecting people. Everything expensive in the market including groceries. I would not be able to say what the cost for items now in the market are since my wife does the grocery shopping. What I can say is, when I harvest crops, the crops are sold to the retailer at a cheaper price but the retailers are the one who are selling the crops to the consumers at a higher cost. Well, I see the cost for fertilizer gone down now which is good but the price for groceries are still expensive. For instance, when planting my last crop, a bag of Urea fertilizer cost $10,000/$9,000 at some places; now the same bag of fertilizer cost 5000/6000 some place. The government is doing well, however, the government should look into the cost of living because groceries are not cheap, it is getting expensive every day. Another thing is, the government distributing items to help farmers but not all farmers receive the items since not all of them are aware of the government distributions.’