Dear Editor,
I COMMEND the Ministry and Minister of Agriculture for their commitment to save ripening paddy as a result of inclement weather.
I travelled around the coast a couple of weeks ago and observed falling paddy stalks. Fields with yellow paddy were abandoned and flooded with water. Once the paddy falls, it is almost impossible to harvest. The combines can’t cut the paddy stalks.

The falling stalks in paddy fields bring back memories of growing up on a plantation. My par Aja and aji, great grandparents from my father’s side, indentured labourers, left behind at death, hundreds of acres of land that they leased from the British.

The old man and old lady divided up the land and hundreds of cattle among his three sons. The two daughters also got shares, but sons always got more.
In turn, the children divided up the land among their children. My father and uncles and their cousins got over 30 acres each of rice, 16 acres of cane, and dozens of cattle, each kept at a huge ranch in Canje. They planted the land in communal ownership and tended to the cattle in the same relationship. They dutifully planted rice and cane every crop, only to suffer losses at times.

Growing up in Port Mourant in an extended family of rice and came farmers, we suffered huge losses in rice cultivation during the 1970s. I remember that period very well, having to assist my father and Aja with rice cultivation and milling.

Paddy was abandoned during several crops as a result of bad weather and impassable dams or tracks. Rain prevented harvesting. And at times after harvesting, the filled paddy bags could not be transported to the paved road and to the mills.

My family as well as my uncles and other cousins often suffered huge losses crop after crop, year after year. The same was experienced in cane cultivation and harvesting. The government then provided no support to farmers.

Now, the government is providing support to reap the paddy in addition to providing grants for losses suffered in last year’s floods.
Thank you, Minister of Agriculture and the Ministry of Agriculture for helping farmers to save their crops. Farmers would be appreciative of support extended by the government.

Yours truly,
Vishnu Bisram