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Essequibo farmers frustrated over paddy prices
By Tusika Martin
The brewing dispute between rice farmers and millers was yesterday again discussed on the Essequibo Coast when farmers from that region expressed their frustration over the low price offered for paddy. During a meeting with Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, farmers accused millers of operating in a ‘cartel’ manner in negotiating the price for the commodity.
Some of the farmers along the Essequibo Coast at the Cotton Field Secondary School yesterday
The farmers called for more competition within the sector, as they believe that millers are holding them to ransom, since the market on the Essequibo Coast is limited. The issues of bounced cheques, grading of paddy, representation at buying centres, cost of production, and late payments for paddy were raised during the meeting.
But even as the farmers are ready to have a ‘face-off’ fight with the millers over the price of paddy, the Minister of Agriculture is appealing that good sense prevail on both sides. He said that the situation requires both sides working together, since the entire industry can collapse once unreasonable demands are made.
Persaud explained that the farmers can convert their lands to plant crops, but the rice mills are not easily sold and cannot diversify.
Millers, he added, need farmers in order to have their investments made worthwhile.
“I always believe that we need each other. One cannot exist without the other.
“We need to sit down in a very sensible way and look at what we can do to accommodate each other.”
The present situation should not be treated as ‘farmers versus the millers’.
“The farmers must not be taken advantage of, and they must not make unreasonable demands of the millers… It requires partnership.”
Financing, Persaud explained, has always been a setback for the rice industry, noting the need to have the industry more competitive.
“Competitiveness is not only necessary for the good times, but competitiveness is also much more essential for the difficult times.”
The uncertainty of the rice price on the global market, he explained, is not something that Guyana can control.
“Guyana is perhaps the only country in the world where we export 70 percent of our rice production. That means that for Guyana’s situation we become much more vulnerable to what takes place with the international prices.”
Countries with large populations, he explained, can ‘lock down’ their food reserve banks. “In our internal population our absorption capacity is very small, because the industry depends on export, so whatever happens with the prices on the international market affects us.”
Guyana can achieve competitiveness, he stated, by reducing the cost of production and by increasing crop yield.
“When we talk about reduction of cost and increase of productivity, we must not only look at the farmers. We also have to look at the millers because they too have high levels of inefficiency. When their cost goes up their ability to pay the farmers is reduced.”
He said that generally farmers are blamed for many of the problems, but there are other players in the industry that must ‘get their acts together’, so that holistically and in a comprehensive way the cost of production can be reduced.
This, he noted, is the only way in which Guyana will be able to manage the ‘ups and downs’ in the prices on the international market.
“The industry has to be resilient and competitive enough to deal with the ‘up’ years and the ‘down’ years.”
On Thursday, Persaud met with rice millers to discuss the issue of the price for paddy. During that meeting the Minister announced that the export commission on rice was reduced from US$10 to US$4 in an effort to have millers offer farmers a much more competitive price for paddy.
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