MINISTER of Agriculture Mr. Robert Persaud has assured farmers on Essequibo Coast that Government is looking at relief measures to help them plant the second rice crop.

Addressing scores of them at a public meeting on Walton Hall Sports ground last Sunday, he disclosed that Government wants to absorb part of the cost for fertilisers, in collaboration with the Rice Producers Association (RPA), so they can benefit from lower prices.

The planters complained to Persaud that millers had paid them very low prices for their paddy and it is difficult for them to go back into cultivation.

The complainants said the most they got was $2,500 per bag for grade ‘A’ paddy and that Caricom Rice Mills only purchased 70,000 bags while Imam Bacchus Company stopped buying, having acquired their 55,000 bags quota.

Minister Persaud advised farmers to form a co-op society and establish their own rice factory and called on the RPA to assist in the venture.

Responding to drainage and irrigation problems, he encouraged farmers to monitor capital projects under construction in rice growing areas.