Stormy meeting ends in stalemate

Sep 17, 2009 News

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Rice farmers are calling for the nationalisation of the rice industry in the wake of low prices they are expected to receive for paddy.
At a fiery meeting held yesterday at the Guyana Rice Producers’ Association (RPA) office at Crane, West Coast Demerara, between farmers, millers, representatives from the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) and the RPA, farmers expressed emphatically that they are operating at a loss and government must intervene.
For the upcoming crop, farmers are expected to receive $2000 for a bag of paddy and this is almost four thousand dollars less than what they received previous crops.
Jagnarine Singh, General Manager of the GRDB, explained that the industry is a private enterprise and as such, the setting of prices is left to millers and farmers. He reminded farmers that they were the ones who subscribed to the current changes. This comment did not sit well with the farmers, since they are of the opinion that the GRDB should really be doing more but it is made up of too many ‘yes-men’.
Ganga Persaud, a farmer of 52 years, believes the industry is heading for imminent collapse if the current low rice price trend continues. He insists that farmers will not have the financial resources to go back to the fields.
Persaud noted that the current fluctuation in prices is an ongoing trend, but the time has come for government to set rice prices rather than leave it to millers who he emphasized, continue to exploit farmers. He questioned the role of the RPA in representing the farmers.

Persaud also opined that if a representative of the body is also a member of the government it would be difficult for that individual to agitate for better working conditions for the group he represents. Persaud referred to the current situation as a ‘ticking time bomb’.
Turhane Doerga, a miller of Ruimzeight Rice Mills, said the genesis of the crisis has its roots in a US-owned company signing contracts with a few local millers and exporters at US$355 per 1000 kg cargo. He said this move is what contributed to millers being unable to pay more than $2000 per bag for paddy.
Doerga is at a loss as to who authorised this agreement, as according to him, this move meant that millers were unable to bargain for higher prices when selling abroad and as such this filtered down to the farmers. He assured them that millers’ hands are tied “we don’t want a war between the millers and the farmers… we would have paid more if we could.”
He said he feels for the farmers since no one should operate at a loss. Doerga proposed that millers and farmers approach the Agriculture Minister, and indicated that he (Doerga) is willing to pay $3250 for a bag of paddy if the right climate is created.
Meanwhile, GRDB Head, Jagnarine Singh, is proposing that a specialised agency be set up to look after the interest of small and medium size mills. This he said will assist in alleviating many of the problems that currently exist. He believes fifty percent of the farmers will be able to earn a livable income if his proposal is taken onboard.
In the meantime, farmers are calling for the setting up of a farmer’s intervention fund. They say the rice industry should be assisted the same way government has assisted others.
Also at the meeting it was established that a delegation of farmers would meet with President Bharrat Jagdeo, before the end of the week, on paddy prices as well as other critical issues facing the industry.
Speaking with Kaieteur News yesterday, General Secretary of the Guyana Rice Producers’ Association (RPA), Dharamkumar Seeraj, said that on Tuesday he spoke with the President, who is currently in Brazil, and the Head of State has agreed to meet with a number of the farmers and rice officials upon his return.
An estimated 60 farmers and rice millers attended yesterday’s meeting where concerns were also raised on the state of farming roads, the quality of contractors’ work on infrastructure and paddy prices.
Also present at yesterday’s meeting was Vice Chairman, Manpersaud and members of the water users associations of Region Three.
At the conclusion of the meeting many farmers expressed dissatisfaction that they were unable to take away anything positive from the meeting. They said that the sole reason for calling the meeting was to come to a compromise about rice prices, but this was not achieved. There are other such meetings to be held countrywide in the coming week to address the current situation.
Last week, Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, had said that is not government’s role to find new markets or meddle with price, since Guyana operates a free market system. The government’s role includes taking matters and handling them on a bilateral level.
A number of rice farmers had met with the Minister, where it was highlighted that transportation and harvesting costs have all mounted. With indications that paddy prices will again be low, like the last season, farmers said that they will be losing thousands of dollars per acre.
Farmers are now facing hardships made worse by a harsh dry season, and having to find unbudgeted money to pump water into their fields.
Additionally, it was disclosed that many farmers, gambling on last year’s record prices, have overextended themselves by planting more rice.
Early last year, farmers received as much as $6000 per bag of paddy. This was due to high world prices fuelled by shortages of rice. However, as several key countries upped production, prices plummeted and by December, local farmers were being offered $2500 per bag.
According to one rice farmer’s figures, it would cost in excess of $84,000 to plant an acre of paddy. Assuming that $2500 is being offered for a bag and each acre produces between 25-35 bags of paddy, the results would mean that farmers will either break even or make huge losses.
Minister Persaud, stressing that world prices are stable, warned that some millers will have to stop being “lazy” as some of the answers to the rice industry’s problems could be found in finding new overseas markets. Countries like Cuba, Colombia and neighbouring Venezuela all have possibilities to diversify the market.
He urged millers to play fair and warned that government will be  monitoring the rice situation and while it cannot control the prices, unfair practices will be spoken out against.
Yesterday, an advertisement in Kaieteur News placed by the RPA Action Committee, a breakaway group of the RPA, accused government of trying to keep the paddy price at $2000 per bag.
The advertisement lashed out claiming that one US company (referred to earlier in a comment by miller Turhane Doerga), previously Dutch-owned, was buying rice cheap and therefore making it bad for farmers.
“Does the minister again want to blame millers for the low prices when millers have suffered badly because of failed or better said, deliberate policies to keep the farmers’ price low?” This was one of the many questions raised by the advertisement.

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