THE prolonged period of dry weather is threatening to hurt rice crops in Mahaica and Mahaicony areas in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice).

Emergency actions are to be taken to provide irrigation supplies to rice under cultivation in these areas, officials of the Mahaica-Mahaicony Abary Agricultural Development Authority (MMA/ADA) and the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) said on Thursday.

A source close to the rice industry in the two areas said that at the moment, about 1000 acres of cultivation is under a growing threat of taking a direct hit if emergency measures are not expedited.

Mr. Brentnol Maynard, Superintendent of Works of the MMA/ADA, confirmed yesterday that the water level in the Perth/Biaboo main canal which supplies irrigation to the two cultivation blocks which are between the Mahaicony and Mahaica creeks, had dropped to a critically low level due to the ongoing, prolonged dry weather.

He said that having visited the areas, his take was that the situation for the rice crop there was moving into a state of uncertainty and could get dire if irrigation could not be sourced and provided over the next two to three weeks. Fields which will take a direct hit are those some distance north of the backlands, since farmers deeper inland are likely to intercept and utilise the limited amounts in the Perth Biaboo canal before the flow can reach the frontlands.

Mr. Seeraj Bhagwandass, NDIA Engineer in Region Five, said that the authority had over the past week, shifted its focus from flood prevention to irrigation as a result of the change in weather conditions. The NDIA has been using excavators to clean up the network of canals which convey water from the Mahaica Creek to cultivation blocks between the Mahaica and The Mahaicony creeks.

Additionally, the NDIA was on Thursday last closely monitoring the salt content of the water in the Mahaica creek which normally goes up as the freshwater flow towards the Atlantic Ocean slows up and salt water from the Atlantic Ocean is drawn inwards. Bhagwandass said that arrangements are being made to insert a mobile irrigation pump at Grass Hook on the Mahaica River which is further inland.

The NDIA will also, if necessary, look at the prospects of inserting a mobile pump at Kuliserabo on the Mahaica River, which is even further inland and where the water is unlikely to be tainted by salt water intrusion from the Atlantic. This pump, which will have a greater capacity, will insert fresh water into an existing channel and via this channel into the Perth Baiboo main canal.

Both Maynard and Bhagwandass confirmed that crops in the Abary/Berbice cultivation blocks are safe from the drought since these are served by the MMA/ADA conservancy via gravity flow and there is no paucity of water in that reservoir. Maynard however called on the farmers in these areas to be very careful not to waste water because the current El Nino weather conditions may persist longer than anticipated. The Guyana Rice

Development Board which is tasked with developing the rice industry, earlier this week disclosed that some 80,792 hectares or 199,556 acres of paddy have already been sown for the first crop in 2019. General Manager of the GRDB Nezam Hassan disclosed that the projected yield is 5.9 tonnes per hectare, an improvement from 2018 which was 5.8 tonnes per hectare.