The heavy dependence on rice has left farmers on the Essequibo Coast and other parts of Guyana reeling after the lucrative Venezuelan rice deal fell through last year.Guyana is yet to locate a market similar to the Venezuela market, and while the Government is looking around with optimism, prominent Essequibo Coast businessman Samad Baksh, 63, has said that farmers should be looking ahead. “They need to embrace diversification,” he said.

Baksh, who has been in business for the past 43 years, told the Guyana Chronicle that farmers do not have to abandon rice, but look at other areas to supplement their incomes earned from rice cultivation.

Rice farmers on the Essequibo Coast have, in the past year, significantly scaled down rice cultivation, and some — especially small farmers — have become taxi drivers to help support their families.

Baksh says there is no need for despair, since farmers have lands; however, they need to put it into good use. And an area they can venture into, he said, is the dairy industry, whose potential has never really been exploited.

According to him, on the Essequibo Coast alone, there is an industry worth $18B annually that is waiting to be tapped.

“The consumption of local milk is very small. On the Essequibo Coast, it is probably less than five per cent. There are about 50,000 people on the Essequibo Coast, and let us say on average they would need at least a pint of milk per day, which can be sold at $100 per pint, that’s $18B a year. At present, the Essequibo Coast does not have the capacity to serve that volume of milk, but it has land and the ability to develop capacity,” said Baksh, who operates a supermarket, a rice mill, a poultry farm, and a chowmein factory; and with a staff of 250, is among the largest employers on the Essequibo Coast.

It is estimated that approximately 98 per cent of the milk consumed locally is imported. These products are readily available in shops and supermarkets throughout Guyana.

PASTEURISATION PLANT
To get things going, Baksh said, the region would need a significant capital investment. And on that note, he said it will need a pasteurisation plant similar to the one Government said it would build in Region Four.
Transporting milk all the way to Region Four, Baksh said, would be too costly for farmers on the Essequibo Coast.

And apart from producing milk, he said, farmers can look at value-added.
Already, a group of 10 women on the Essequibo Coast who have seen the potential of milk have started a small operation, which has been growing from strength to strength. Every week, the women’s group called WDs Dairies purchases 10 gallons of milk, which they use to produce milk shakes. The shakes come in four flavours: Strawberry, Peanut Punch, Whole Milk and Chocolate; and with a smooth, delicious taste, consumers regularly drain the bottles of their dregs in an effort to get every drop.

From the 10 gallons of milk, the women produce 150 bottles of shakes utilising homemade techniques to pasteurise the milk, aided by a quality control officer. The whole process — from pasteurisation of the milk to bottling and labelling — takes about two hours.

“Already, we have a ready market. The milk is sold in the WDs Mall and (in) shops at Charity, and the response from consumers has been excellent. We will soon target the schools on the Essequibo Coast; but, right now, there is a great demand to produce more,” said Mignon Alphonso, one of the members of the group.

VALUE ADDED
Aside from the milk shakes, the group is looking to produce yogurt, cheese, ice-cream and other milk products, as there is a market for these products at Charity and on the Essequibo Coast.

Another prominent Essequibo Coast businessman, Roopan Ramotar, had told the Guyana Chronicle that rice farmers would continue to feel the squeeze if they do not diversify their business.

Ramotar is also into cattle rearing, plantain farming, fish cultivation and coconut cultivation. He recently constructed a modern coconut processing factory at Land of Plenty on the Essequibo Coast, and is exporting coconut water to a buyer in the sister Caricom nation of Trinidad and Tobago.

Ramotar, who has not given up cultivating rice, has said the road to survival for rice requires a four-step approach: (1) cutting production cost (2) upping yield (3) producing quality paddy, and (4) creating a demand for rice.

“Planting less and producing high quality paddy will improve demand; and with this happening, the price for rice will go up and farmers will get more money. And this will be supplemented by the income they earn from their cattle, sheep, or fish farm,” he has said.