WHAT more can I say? When it’s the weather, it’s pricing and when it’s not that, then it’s infestation from pest and diseases. We the rice farmers in Guyana sometimes face difficult moments like we are right now with the paddy bug infestation. I wish to bring this to your attention and more so call on the authorities to continue their efforts in dealing with this matter.

I have been a rice producer for over thirty years and I can tell you that rice farming is not easy work, especially those discipline farmers who put all their efforts in production and proper agronomic practices. But when we are faced with natural disasters and pest and disease infestation, we feel it hard since the investment monies comes from our pocket. Hence the reason I call on the authorities to continue their efforts in relieving us farmers from the current paddy bug infestation.

I have personally done research on the paddy bug and can tell you that it is not an easy insect to deal with. These insect don’t need a visa to travel from fields to fields, they move in swarms of millions and can destroy an entire field in a few days. They are sucking insects and feed at the milk stage of the rice plant and would even attack the plant at the dough stage. This can cause wind paddy or damaged grains at the factory (milling) both of which can reduce income for the farmer after his hard work.

I know for a fact that the Guyana Rice Development Board has trained entomologists and research scientists who spend lots of time researching and coming up with beneficial solutions for problems such as the paddy bug infestation. I wish to implore on them that their research work continue to reach us farmers through the well coordinated farmers’ field school and their skilled extension staff. These staff need to be commended since if it were not for them, lots of farmers would have abandoned their rice fields. Even on last Sunday, Officers were in my fields checking the status of paddy bugs and continue to train us on how to check our infestation levels. Also, they advocated the principle that once there are groups of farmers along a stretch of land, all should clean and maintain their fields in order to avoid or reduce the infestation level. I wish to implore on the farmers to adhere to this advice and let us all come together to fight off the paddy bugs from our fields.