Rice farmers no longer take water for granted and have learnt by experience, if not by training, that water management is key to their operations, especially with the recently concluded El Nino dry spell which saw losses in productivity due to water shortage.
“People sometimes take water for granted,” said General Secretary of the Guyana Rice Producers Association, Dharamkumar Seeraj. He said that farmers are managing their water supplies in a more responsible way.
But he said that although there has been some rain, the conservancies are not at the levels that they should be for effective drainage and irrigation of rice lands. “We need more rain in the Mahaica area,” said Seeraj.
He said that because of the difficulties experienced in the last months with the dry spell, the coming crop is going to be a challenge. But he nevertheless is hopeful that farmers will get out there and plant.
The sector is targeting the planting of 77,000 hectares, with the hope of surpassing last year’s spring crop of 64,000 hectares of planting. He said that the crop is going to be late because of the dry season.
Seeraj expressed the hope that the rain takes a break by August/September, so that harvesting could be done. According to Seeraj, seed paddy is a problem to access, because of the dry season.
Inputs to production also caught the attention of the RPA General Secretary. Speaking to this newspaper in an interview, Seeraj said that for rice production in Guyana, almost all of the inputs are imported and the cost of these makes it difficult for farmers.
He said that what Guyana has is the good land suitable for the planting of rice, water, the seeds and knowledge. But the fertilser and the pest control chemicals have to be imported.
Seeraj said there is a link between the price for fertilizer and the price for fuel, and one of the reasons for this is that some of the fertilizer chemicals are by-products of petroleum and therefore fluctuate with the price of petroleum.
Seeraj explained that the Government’s subsidy for fertilizer was just for farmers who lost most of their crops. These totaled 300 persons, primarily based in Regions Two and Three, but also in Four, Five and Six. This assistance also included seed paddy, Seeraj added.
“Two thousand and eight was hell,” he said, referring to the highpoint of the global financial crisis. “The price of fertilizer went through the roof,” he said, adding that also responsible for the spike was the all time low in the stock to use ratio for grains.
He said too that Guyana’s rice planting times coincide with the planting seasons of the large grain-growing countries and this could contribute to the high price of inputs.
According to Seeraj, when there are high input prices, there is a small increase in the selling price. But the farmers, according to Seeraj, are decrying that the increase that they get from selling the product cannot justify the high input costs that they are faced with.
He said that Guyana is a small player on the international scene for rice and that “We are price takers and not price makers.” He said that price making is determined by volumes and Guyana does not have the volumes to steer prices in any direction.
Seeraj said too that because Guyana cannot accommodate the larger ships with fertilizer, the country is forced to purchase the product at less competitive prices.
“If we can get [a shipment of] 12 ½ metric tones [of fertilizer] we can get a good price,” he said. He added that the price goes up when the product is purchased in small quantities.
He said the sector in Guyana is doing more integrated management of crops to control pests and using fewer chemicals for this. “We are trying to wean the industry away from chemicals,” he said.
Turning his attention to drainage and irrigation, Seeraj said this must be “top notch” when planting irrigated rice. He said the management of these, and not just the infrastructure, is what is critical to the performance of the sector.
Seeraj said the challenges of the last season caused the sector to lose some acreage and he noted that the extreme weather can indeed test the sector’s ability to manage the D&I infrastructure.
“We have seen renewed interest in D&I, in recognition of the importance of it to the sector,” he said. “We are comfortable with the percentage of resources overall that is given to the agriculture sector. We, as a farmers’ organization, have seen the result of advocacy and we have seen improvement in D&I,” said Seeraj.