…says Minister Persaud
Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud said that the authorities will be enforcing contract stipulations that call for penalties in the event substandard work is done and anyone caught “lapsing”, especially at this rainy season, will be dealt with condignly.
The Minister was yesterday addressing farmers and residents at Golden Fleece Essequibo Coast at the commissioning of a new double door sluice, at a cost of $121M.
“Because of the investment that we are commissioning today, it is the concentrated focus on the rice industry, not at the neglect of other areas of the country, but because this region is primarily a rice growing one,” said the Minister.
“It is very critical and important to ensure that we make the investments to secure the viability and the competitiveness of the rice industry,” he said. He said the investment, with others, was conceptualised to ensure that there is proper water management, because “we recognise that water management accounts for 40 percent of what determines how competitive or how successful will be the rice sector in our country.”
Persaud said the Government will continue to make such investments and will be offering no apology for this. “You will read those with idle pens who will criticise us for making investments in our farmers and providing adequate infrastructure,” he said.
“I want to say that we are clear with our vision, we have a plan and we will mobilise with our partners locally and overseas,” he said.

300,000 tonnes
Minister Persaud said that for the first time in Guyana’s history, the country is exporting more than 300,000 tonnes of rice. “And this could not have taken place had we not made investments such as this in all the rice-growing areas. That accomplishment is due to the farmers’ hard work. Government and Region’s role is just to facilitate; but this is testimony to your hard work and dedication, notwithstanding the difficulties,” he said.
The Minister spoke of progress being seen in the other crops sector and in livestock.
He said before the advent of the sluice, the area had a drainage capacity of one and a half inch. “Now we have been able to increase to two and a half inches, and today we can see better drainage of 7000 acres of productive land,” he said.

State of alert
The Minister said, “Be it the koker attendant, be it the regional officials, be it the community drainage officers, be it the extension officers, everyone must be in a state of high alert…everyone!”
He said the rainfall now being experienced is not something to be taken lightly. “It is something that requires maximum attention. It requires full attention. And anyone found lapsing and leading to losses by our farmers, we intend to deal condignly with that person,” he declared.
“For too long, people sometimes take their responsibilities lightly,” he said, adding that just three days ago, a koker attendant in Canje was dismissed because he could not be found at a critical time.
“We will assure persons who do not fulfill their responsibilities that we take tough action, but I also want to commend you for the work you have been doing. There are thousands of people depending on you and millions of US dollars depend on your work,” he said.
“We need to ensure that people who are contracted too that they perform,” he said. “I am very dissatisfied with some of the quality and timeliness of some of the work of some of the contractors,” he said.
“We are managing close to 150 projects of varying scales for drainage and irrigation across the country and out of the 150 contracts that we are managing, close to 65 percent of them are behind schedule because the contractor, for some reason or another, cannot get the work done on time,” he said.
There are penalties in those contracts and these must be applied, the Minister said, adding that in some instances the Government will move to terminate contracts.