With continued monitoring…
MANAGEMENT of Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) is actively monitoring the interactions between millers and farmers this Spring crop to ensure that arrangements for the purchase and sale of paddy are acceptable to both parties. Consequently, as harvesting of the El Nino hit cultivations approaches, GRDB officers have been visiting millers in the rice producing areas and having discussions with them on the issue, General Manager, Mr. Jagnarine Singh disclosed yesterday.
He said: “We have been telling the millers that we are concerned that some of them  are telling farmers to leave their paddy and they would tell them the prices later.”
According to Singh, GRDB has told all millers that such behaviour will not be tolerated and, since the meetings began, there are indications that the playing field between farmers and millers is levelling out.
“Many millers have been doing the right thing, advertising their prices, telling the farmers up front what they would get,” he reported.
Singh said the prices being offered farmers presently range from $3,500 to $3,800 per bag and, as millers have been cooperating fully, the situation, with respect to prices and payments, should be better this crop.
But he said GRDB will continue to monitor the situation to ensure that the trade in paddy is done in a fair and transparent manner and farmers are not shortchanged.
Meanwhile, Rice Producers Association (RPA) General Secretary, Mr. Dharamkumar Seeraj recently declared that the El Nino weather pattern spells disaster for a number of rice farmers in the country, especially in Region Three (West Demerara/Essequibo Islands).
However, others involved in the industry, said they will be better able to assess the overall impact of El Nino in early April when the harvest is fully underway.