A shortened rainy season has resulted in a scarcity of water for rice farmers

throughout the country, which now puts the current rice crop under some degree of threat which could result in a diminished well-being of farmers and lower production of rice than has been projected.
If this happens it would be most unfortunate, because the rice industry over recent years has been a success story with booming production, last year and the previous year being record-breaking with over 400,000 tonnes of rice produced.
However, it is welcome news that the Ministry of Agriculture is expending huge resources to pump water in all the rice-growing communities in an effort to ensure there is no damage to the cultivated rice or at least minimal damage.
According to Agriculture Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy, pumps are being operated at a time when there is no budget and that the Agriculture Ministry is expending money that it does not have.
He said he wanted to bring this to the fore because, at some point, persons may want to make a political story about it; that the ministry is spending without authority.
“I’m telling the nation and asking them what I should do? I could defer the work and wait till I have appropriated money from the Parliament but then we will lose all the rice because, by the time that happens, the rice would have been lost. And sugar would have been affected and cash crops would have been affected and more than 100,000 farmers would have sunk into poverty. Therefore, I have to do what is necessary at this time,” Ramsammy maintained.
He said he must indicate to farmers that the Hydromet Service and the global modules are indicating that it will get worse before it gets better and he advised that, this would be the last week of the traditional rainy season. However, he noted that this has been a rainy season with no rain.
Dr Ramsammy’s observation that some persons may want to make a political story as a result of money being spent, which his ministry does not have, is indeed pertinent and should be well taken because, since the so-called new dispensation of a combined opposition one-seat majority in Parliament, the latter has been making relentless efforts to prevent the government from accessing  funds so as to stall progress and, by extension, sabotage the developmental process. And so the lamentation of the minister is not surprising.
According to him, if irrigation water is not made available, over 100,000 farmers could be reduced to poverty and therefore there is no other alternative but to spend whatever money is necessary to save the crop and prevent farmers from descending into poverty.
Anyone who is objective and is patriotic would agree with the minister’s stance which is a most logical and imperative one.
But based on what has been happening in the local political arena recently, it would not be surprising if the opposition turns this issue into a political football to score political points. And if this happens the Guyanese people, especially the farmers, would be the judges of what the opposition stands for and whether they are really committed to the well-being of the agricultural sector, farmers and  this nation as a whole.
So the entire nation would be watching what position the opposition would be adopting on this issue. However, what is of major priority now is the saving of the crop and the well-being of farmers.
In the context of long-term planning, the Ministry of Agriculture should seriously examine the possibility of the construction of conservancies in those agricultural regions where there are none because the Climate Change Phenomenon will be here with us for a very long time and therefore irregular weather patterns will not go away in the near future. At the same time our agricultural sector continues to expand and therefore we would increasingly need irrigation water to meet this greater demand.
It is anticipated that when hydro-electricity becomes a reality, there would be a greater demand for agricultural produce as it is very likely that there would be a significant growth in agro-processing industries. This would, in turn, stimulate growth in agriculture and as such there would be need for larger volumes of irrigation water.