-Minister Mustapha says during meeting at Cotton Field

AFTER being informed that millers have accumulated over $50M in outstanding payments owed to farmers, Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha has assured the affected Region Two rice farmers that efforts are being made to ensure they get their money.

This matter was among several raised during a meeting held at the Cotton Field Secondary School on Tuesday afternoon. The minister subsequently met with the region’s millers at Anna Regina, where he announced a 35% reduction in ferry freight for paddy transport.

In his address to scores of rice farmers, Minister Mustapha reminded that rice is not a private business but rather it is the government’s business. In this regard, he informed the farmers that the ministry is currently working to implement short term measures to address the issue of delayed payments.

During the meeting, it was revealed that over $50 million are owed to the farmers. The Guyana Chronicle had previously reported that outstanding payments were for paddy supplied to millers over a five-year period. Wazir Hussain Rice Mill and the Ramlakhan Rice Mill are among those who, allegedly, owe money.

This issue was raised with regional officials who, at a recent meeting of the Regional Democratic Council (RDC), agreed to write to Minister Mustapha seeking his intervention.

The famers, during the discourse with the minister, raised several other issues including paddy-bug infestations, grading of paddy, paddy price and the lack of proper infrastructure leading to farmlands.

Rice farmer, Kaydar Persaud, said that farmers are currently dissatisfied with the current prices being offered. He also lamented that the grading systems at the mills are unfair and often millers are graded harshly with a high dockage. He, therefore, called for a review of the system.

Rice farmers also called for financial assistance to return to their fields after experiencing severe flooding last month. They have also requested that the minister and his team visit more often, especially at the beginning of the rice crop. They also requested more drainage, especially in the West Bury and Cozier areas.

In addressing the pricing for paddy in the region, Minister Mustapha said that he is hoping that the reduction of the ferry freight will trickle down to the rice farmers so that they can get better prices. He said the reduced freight price will mean more savings for millers who can, in turn, offer farmers better prices.

The reduction applies only to the use of the Good Hope ferry which plies the Good Hope to Parika route. Millers of Wakenaam and Leguan are already benefiting from a similar arrangement.

Meanwhile, as it relates to the grading of the paddy, Minister Mustapha informed that officials from the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) are working to address that issue. More graders will be dispatched to mills along the Essequibo Coast to represent the farmers. At the moment, there are only six official GRDB graders in place at six mills.

Four mills are without graders. Minister Mustapha informed that GRDB will place graders at these mills to overlook the grading process.

“To avoid distrust in the system, I am asking you the farmers to select farmers’ representatives at each mill and the ministry will pay them so that they will overlook the grading and moisture, so that there will be a fair system,” Mustapha said.

ASSISTANCE FOR FARMERS

Further, he disclosed that several drying floors will be established along the Essequibo Coast. This, he said, will be done following consultations with the farmers.

The region will also benefit from five boom sprayers which were procured by the ministry to deal with paddy-bug infestations. The sprayers are expected to arrive in the region in June.

“Those farmers that have issues with paddy bugs, I have already instructed GRDB that we will help the farmers by giving chemicals, expertise, and extension services so that they can deal with the paddy bugs,” Minister Mustapha said.

At the end of the meeting, farmers were given pesticides, and it was promised that GRDB field officers will be re-visiting them to assess damages caused by paddy-bug infestations.

Those rice farmers whose lands were under water last month will also be the recipients of one bag of seedlings per acre.

“All these interventions we are making, we are doing to improve farmers’ lives. When we left government in 2015, the agriculture sector was starved.There were several dilapidated structures, clogged canals, impassable dams; we had to revive the sector,” he emphasised.

Regional Chairperson, Vilma De Silva; Regional Executive Officer, Devanand Ramdatt; and Regional Vice-Chairman, Humace Oodit accompanied Minister Mustapha to the meeting.