Essequibo farmers receive payments from MRL

Aug 24, 2009 News

Some farmers in Essequibo have reported that they have begun receiving monies owed to them by the Mahaicony Rice Mills Limited (MRL).
This is according to General Secretary of the Guyana Rice Producers Association (GRPA), Dharamkumar Seeraj, who told Kaieteur News yesterday that although he is not sure that the entire $17 million was paid out to all farmers, some of them have reported to him that the cheques given to them by the company were honoured.
However, while farmers in Essequibo are receiving their monies, MRL is yet to commence payments to farmers in Region Six.
The milling company had made a commitment to the Ministry of Agriculture to pay out a total of $171 million to Region Six farmers before the start of harvesting at the end of this month or in early September.
On August 18th, 2009, the General Manager of the rice company, Taramatie Ghanie, along with Assistant Manager of Demerara Bank, Andre Lam met with Seeraj and Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, and a commitment was made to pay the farmers.
It was reported that approximately $200 million is owed to farmers for the first crop by the milling company.
At that meeting, Seeraj had said that the rice industry cannot do without the operation of Mahaicony Rice Mills, and taking this into consideration, the GRPA has recognised that the company has been running a ‘little wild’ in the past.
He reiterated that MRL has to operate within the regulations of the industry.
“I think the company has recognised that we are very serious about addressing these issues, the rice industry is very close to the heart of the Guyanese people and we will not allow any single company to ride roughly over the farmers themselves,” Seeraj said.
He added that if the milling company operates in a much more accountable and transparent manner, then regulations will not have to be framed, which might not be in the interest of a free market enterprise.
It was also explained that if the company is to dishonor its commitment then there are measures in place within the regulation to penalise them.
However, Minister Persaud said that these measures will be the last resort of the Ministry of Agriculture.
He added that the Ministry is also in the process of drafting regulations to take to Parliament, which will see each farmer being paid 95 per cent of their total transaction by the milling company.
In the earlier amendment to the Rice Factories Act, the Ministry had stated that the amount to be paid to farmers should be 95 per cent of payments.
However, there still seems to be skullduggery taking place in this aspect and as such, Persaud said there is the need for the new regulation.
“Because you have 95 per cent being honored but then you have five per cent might be accounted for, 200 farmers who have small sums owed to them by the mill, but that is not being honored. So we are trying to bring it down now so that every farmer receives at least 95 per cent of their payments.”

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Essequibo farmers receive payments from MRL

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