People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Member of Parliament, Dharamkumar Seeraj, said no other Caribbean country can boast of Guyana’s level of achievement, given the global economic crisis and the prevailing economic conditions across the region.
Seeraj was responding to criticisms of the 2010 budget by PNCR Executive Member Winston Murray.
Seeraj stated that Guyanese would have preferred to have more; but in the current financial context, it is unreasonable to expect a Third World, developing country to provide more than the present budget caters for.
Commenting on Murray’s claim that Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh boasted of high production in 2009 but failed to mention that prices were lower in 2008, Seeraj quoted paragraph 2.3 of the budget which states that, “In the case of rice, the average price in 2009 was US$589 per tonne or 15.8 percent lower than 2008, but the price at the end of 2009 was US$606 per tonne or 10 percent higher than at the end of 2008”.
Speaking in his capacity as General Secretary of the Guyana Rice Producers Association (GRPA), Seeraj said the minister was clearly providing information not only relevant to higher production but indicative of commodity pricing.
He explained that in 2008, prices for grains and cereals were chaotic given that the stock-in-use ratio worldwide was at a low of 17 percent as against the norm of 35 percent.
This, he said, resulted in the purchasing of volumes due to a panic reaction of a perceived shortage.
However, the trend has seen Guyana as a rice exporter enjoying high prices but this could not have been maintained since it was a panic reaction.
“Notwithstanding the achievement, rice was not without its challenges as rice saw the reverse happening in 2009 when prices fell,” Seeraj explained.
He stressed that for Murray to be dismissive of the rice sector’s performance indicates that he does not appreciate or understand the difficulties faced by farmers since inputs are imported and subjected to international pricing.
“This year the challenges will be greater with the El Nino phenomenon and given that our two major crops–rice and sugar– respond differently to periods of dry spells.”
Seeraj related that to protect Guyana’s rice during the dry season, several measures were in place to monitor the system, harness additional sources of water, put in additional pumping capacity and produce a crop that is in a reasonable state.
Several waterway diversions are also being undertaken to provide adequate irrigation supply to rice farmers in a number of areas.
“Canje Creek would have been depleted were it not for its linkage with the Berbice River via the Torani Canal…These efforts would result in us saving the rice crop by and large. We have seen minimal loss in Region Three and the mechanism will see a halt in further losses in the rice sector,” the MP said.
Seeraj added that opposition members must have an appreciation of the effects natural weather patterns can have on the productive sector against the backdrop of President Jagdeo’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) which caters for Guyana’s contribution to the protection of the environment.(GINA)