BEING a farmer in these times can be really tough. Harsh weather conditions are not helping us at all. The weather has been destroying our crops and in some cases livestock. The prediction from the Hydromet office has given us up to Mid March to have this weather. In this instance, we as farmers wish their predictions are incorrect since we are in dire need of rain. The water is running out from the various conservancies and every day we hear on the television and radio that we must conserve water. In some areas they cannot conserve because they don’t have.
There are a fortunate few who still have ready access to fresh water. I wish to note that although we have an abundance of water in this land, we are paying a high price for it right now. And hence, I wish to urge my fellow farmers that we should be very conservative or else it would get more costly and due to this natural resource which we most times put a blind eye on, we can run our pockets dry. Hence, be careful and practice proper water management techniques.
The techniques are readily available. I have benefitted from valuable information from the Guyana Rice Development Board and the National Agricultural Research Institute. Farmers need to use these agencies more often to benefit from the work being done to modernize the agriculture sector. This is the time when we need the extension officers to be out in the fields as we have been witnessing since the commencement of the dry conditions, their presence needs to be sustained to support farmers and their activities.
With the support that I have received, I would therefore like to commend the hardworking staff of the Ministry of Agriculture who are out in the fields to support and work with farmers. Together we surely can modernize and revitalize the agriculture sector.  Equally important is the need for farmers to work together and look out for one another during the trying time we are facing.