-Despite threats from weeds, weather
DESPITE the ever-present threat to yield and quality posed by weeds and bad weather, Guyana seems well on the way to achieving its targeted production of an unprecedented 400,000 tonnes of rice for 2011. Speaking to the Guyana Chronicle on Tuesday, General Secretary of the Guyana Rice Producers Association (RPA), Dharamkumar Seeraj said if all goes well, harvesting of paddy should be finished by the third week of this month; “[but] if the rains come, that will have severe implications for our overall target itself, and our yield and production.”
He is however optimistic that given the performance of the first season, the industry will come close to achieving the 400,000-tonne target for this year. “We did very well in the spring crop,” Seeraj said. “And if there is some reduction in yield in the autumn crop relative to the spring crop, then we should still be able to make the 400,000 mark that we are targeting for 2011.”  In 2010, the sector realised an output of 336,300 tonnes.
Noting that of the 72,000 hectares cultivated this crop, just over 8,000 hectares have been harvested throughout the country so far, Seeraj said:
“With Regions Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), Three (West Demerara-Essequibo Islands) and Four (Demerara-Mahaica), we shouldn’t have much difficulty, but given the stage of the crop in Regions Five (Mahaica-Berbice) and Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), we are a bit worried.”
Part of that worry, it seems, stems from an invasion of ‘Monkey Tail’ grass all across the rice belt. “The autumn crop of 2011 is progressing, [but] two months ago, we observed in the Essequibo area, which gives an early indication of a problem that we are likely to face relating to weed infestation, in this case, ‘Monkey Tail’ grass,” he said.
Noting that this particular weed infestation manifests itself late into the crop, Seeraj said: “It is difficult to detect, given its similarity in its early stage to the rice plant itself. It is posing a major problem across the rice growing belt for all farmers.”
Another major setback is the presence of what is known in the industry as ‘red rice’. “Here, as in the case with ‘Monkey Tail’, the infestation appears to be above-normal in all of the rice-growing regions, which is cause for concern,” Seeraj said, adding:
“We fear at the RPA level and also at the GRDB (Guyana Rice Development Board) level that given the manifestation level of these weeds, this will have some implications not only for yields but also for quality for this season.”
And, while yields reached an average of 5.4 tonnes per hectare last season (which was the spring crop of 2011, we’re not likely to see a repeat of that performance this crop.
“That situation is not likely to repeat itself for this season across the country,” he said. “In Region Four, especially in the Cane Grove, Golden Grove, and Mahaica areas, we are likely to sustain a similar yield, in the vicinity of 5.4 tonnes per hectare. My prediction is that given the level of infestation in the fields, we will fall below average for the spring crop.”
The good news however, is that harvesting is progressing, with Region Two achieving almost 70 percent of its target, with yields of about 4.4 tonnes per hectare, which is a little bit down from what it was last year. He gave as the reason for the weed infestation, the farmers’ inability to properly prepare the land due to the adverse weather conditions at the time of sowing. “That had an impact on our ability to control weeds,” he said.
The major form of weed control here, he explained, is to use flooded conditions in which to grow the rice. “But because we prepared a lot of land in wet conditions,” he said, “there were pre-germinated seeds that were themselves struggling to come through the water. So a lot of farmers had to drain their fields at the time of sowing to allow the rice to grow through. While that was happening the condition also was conducive to weeds themselves going through.”
Still on the same subject, Seeraj said: “I know that in Region Three, we also have a similar situation where you have some infestation. But we are doing a little bit better in terms of the yields, which is just about 4.7 tonnes per hectare. But in Region Two, we are down from what it was in the spring crop of 2011. In Cane Grove (Region Four), we just have about 12 – 13 percent of the acreage sown to be harvested, so we have advanced in terms of harvesting for Region Four. And yield here is just about 5.4 tonnes per hectare.”
In terms of Regions Five and Six, two areas that began planting late, Seeraj said of the former, which is somewhat behind schedule: “To date, we have only completed harvesting about 56 percent of the acreage sown.” Harvest in Region Six, he said, is about 72 per cent complete.
Seeraj stated that the Region Five yields are lower than expected, at just about 3.6 tonnes per hectare, compounding the weed infestation problem. “We expect this to go up a little bit, but like I said, given the fact that a lot of the acreage experienced the infestation by the weeds, we are not hopeful that it will get close to 4.5 tonnes per hectare. We think that it will average out to just about 4 tonnes per hectare,” he said, adding that Region Six is doing marginally better than Region Five in terms of yield per hectare, with an average yield of 4.7 tonnes.
“We are witnessing a situation of periodic showers, which does not augur well for harvesting, especially for Regions Five and Six, given the conditions of access dams,” Seeraj said, adding:
“I know the Minister of Agriculture had sought the assistance of his colleague Minister of Local Government to get both ministries and their officers and different agencies that fall under the different ministries to work together to address this issue of ensuring the access dams and farm-to-market roads are prepared in advance of the harvesting, so that we can optimise on the days that are available to us for harvesting.
“Needless to say, there are some challenges in accessing machinery and also the weather days to provide for the rehabilitation of these dams so that the transportation of paddy will be with some ease.”
He said that the prediction for the rest of the year seems to be indicating a weak, La Nina type condition. “We are a little bit concerned at this particular time that harvesting might become more difficult given the occasional showers that we have been experiencing,” he said.
“The farmers are looking out for a better price, better than last season. The demand from the international market is a little slow and that is not uncommon. We are still to finalise the price for rice to Venezuela. We know that the prices will be better than last season because not only is the price for rice on the international market higher than what it was last season, but there appears to be that, some of the major rice growing countries are experiencing difficulties as relates to the weather itself,” he added.
He is of the view, however, that due to weather woes in many of the rice-growing and consuming countries, Guyana should be able to get a better price for its rice, despite the fact that the markets are presently slow, and contracts are coming in “at a snail’s pace.”
The prices that rice farmers are receiving from the mills hover between $4,000 and $4,300 per bag of paddy, depending on the grade, he said, adding that if the quality is poor, the prices can come down to as low as $3,600 per bag.
The Mid-Year review, released some weeks ago said that the first six months of 2011 saw production at 207,514 tonnes, or 23.3 percent higher than the corresponding period in 2010 and the highest first crop in the history of the sector. The report attributed this growth mainly to improved drainage and irrigation, the development of new and more tolerant rice strains, higher yields and higher acreage of paddy planted. The report said that favourable international prices for the produce served as a catalyst to farmers, despite timely payments by millers remaining a concern.