RICE farmers in Number 65-69 villages, East Berbice, Corentyne, who were at their wits end after suffering millions in losses due to cattle invading their fields, may soon breathe a sigh of relief with the intervention of the Prime Minister’s Office in Region Six.

Rice farmers have been facing an ongoing battle with cattle owners whom they claim are deliberately leaving their animals to roam freely, resulting in destruction to their rice fields. Cattle farmers have also not been compensating rice farmers for damage done by their cattle.

However, this may soon end as the Prime Minister’s Regional representative Gobin Harbhajan sought the advice of the Ministry of Agriculture on the matter.
The ministry will soon begin issuing notices to cattle owners to monitor their animals or face legal action.

The rice farmers have in the past confronted the cattle owners directly, but they keep denying that the animals are theirs. Even attempts by the police have failed to curtail the actions of the cattle owners, some of whom are rice farmers.

“Whenever we try talking to the cattle owners, they always denying is their cows and telling us that cow nah get pot, which is unfair. We try to get the cow out of the field quickly because if they bite a head, it can’t grow back and it done so we nah get time to stop and take picture and them nonsense,” Bijai Latchminarine, a rice farmer told the Guyana Chronicle.

This battle between rice farmers and cattle owners has been an age-long one that sometimes ends in violence. In a bid to help rice farmers, the regional administration would normally supply them with Wallaba posts and barbed wires to fence their fields. However, these wires were deliberately vandalised, allowing cows to gain entry into the rice fields.

“Them a cut the wire with pliers or pull down the post. Once them cow taste the rice them always a try to go in and get it. We nah able with this no more. I lose 35 acres rice. I took loans to plant my 100 acres now more than 30 per cent damage. We gotta wuk in the day and watchman in the nights now. This crop totally destroy for us. When we tell the cattle owners they don’t listen to us. Them always ready to fight and cuss and we suffer the loss. I totally give up. This is stressing me; them cattle owners know to themselves is them one and them nah ah take ownership,” another frustrated farmer, Anand Tulsi of Number 68 Village, said.

BIG LOSS
Another farmer, Lindie Ramado, 48, estimated his losses for this crop to be over $3M. She was forced to discontinue her previous crop after 90 per cent of her field was damaged.

Harbhajan explained that after hearing the farmers’ plight, he made contact with the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority, the Rice Producers Association and other agencies.

They agreed to draft a legal notice which will be issued to the cattle farmers to keep their animals away from rice fields. “If they fail to adhere to the warning, then we will move to implement legal proceedings against them and they will have to compensate the farmers for the damage,” Harbajan explained.

He noted that some 16,000 acres of land in the 52/74 savannah has been allocated for cattle rearing and contended that cattle must not be in cultivation areas.

Cash crop farmers have also expressed their frustration at the situation and are hoping that the new measures being implemented will work.

“We are the farmers facing all the losses. It is very unfair and I think it’s time someone from the government start putting their foot down and enforce tough penalties, so we could get a way to get back what we lost. We need the help if we are to continue, we have to continue, it is our livelihood,” said Mahendranauth Doolchand called “Lallie,” who lost 750 banana suckers to cattle invasion.

In 2018, he was forced to stop planting his cash crop garden after cattle destroyed some $500,000 worth in bora, ochro and pepper, among other plants.

There are approximately 50 rice farmers in the area who cultivate some 3000 acres of rice in the backlands of the six villages.