Excessive rainfall over the past week has affected the spring harvest and General Secretary of the Guyana Rice Producers’ Association (RPA), Mr. Dharamkumar Seeraj, said several areas are under threat, but the water is receding and no losses have yet been reported.
“It is too early to say if we have lost rice,” he said.
Regions Two (Pomeroon/Supenaam), Three (Essequibo Islands/West Demerara), Four (Demerara/Mahaica), Five (Mahaica/Berbice) and Six (East Berbice/Corentyne) are the country’s rice producing areas.
Seeraj noted that only Region Six was not affected, since rice farmers there welcomed the rains which assisted their crop.
However, Region Two was the most affected since there harvesting was well underway.
According to him, the areas between Onderneeming and Suddie have approximately 85 acres of rice under water.
“The water is receding so we should start to harvest again,” he said.
Seeraj pointed out that the major problems are the harvesting and the condition of the access dams, which were adversely affected by the heavy rains.
In Region Three, he said, harvesting has come to a complete halt.
He said that Vergenogen has rice ready for harvest and in Greenwich Park, some 24 acres of rice is under threat.
He added that in Region Four the water was backed up in some areas, but the situation is improving with the water’s recession.
In Region Five, Seeraj said areas between Cotton Field and Blairmont are flooded, but the worst affected areas are Numbers Seven, Eight and Nine Villages.
“A team, including Minister Robeson Benn visited the area on Thursday and interventions are being made,” he said.
Seeraj said work is being done to reopen a culvert at Number Eight Village to assist in taking off more water from the land and work is being done to open a road to aid in the reactivation of a drainage system at the junction of Number Seven and Eight Villages.
“We are making the necessary interventions to bring relief to farmers as best we can,” Seeraj stressed.
An added challenge for this crop was that not all the areas were able to make use of its full production capacity because conditions for land preparation were not ideal and affected sowing, and also because of late harvesting of the last crop, particularly in Regions Five and Six.
Seeraj said because of the challenges, the acreage sown in the regions will be 14,000 hectares in Region Two; 1,000 in Region Three; 3,000 hectares in Region Four; 28,000 hectares in Region Five; and 19,500 hectares in Region Six.
The spring crop is expected to see a production of 4.4 million bags of paddy.
Additionally, the situation on the ground is being closely monitored by the Ministry of Agriculture, supported by a number of interventions.
Guyana is being affected by the La Nina phase phenomenon, which is expected to last until the end of March.
La Nina is above average rainfall in a particular area for a particular period of time and is generally associated with dryer areas. In essence, La Nina follows a period of El Nino and translates into intense rainfall.
Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud is expected to visit Regions Two, Four and Five today and a Ministry team is to continue support to affected areas over the weekend during a routine outreach exercise.