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Govt promises $400M intervention to compensate farmers

Sep 22, 2009 News

President Bharrat Jagdeo recently announced a $400M intervention fund to assist the rice industry. Farmers have been complaining about low prices they are receiving for paddy.
Rice millers are reportedly paying $2000 for a bag of paddy, to the discomfort of farmers and they are complaining of not making a profit.
A rice farmers group has since slammed the $400M, labelling it a ‘drop in the ocean’. According to Jinnah Rahaman, a member of the Rice Producers’ Association Action Committee, the figure is just a big number that means nothing to farmers and the industry. Farmers have also branded the assistance by the President a camouflage to silence them.
Well what does the $400M equate to? The rice industry has about 25,000 rice farmers and is expected to produce 360,000 tonnes of rice this crop, the highest ever in Guyana’s history.
This amounts to 5.5 million bags of paddy produced at the end of harvesting for the crop. Should the intervention fund pass directly to the farmers, the $400M means a mere $72 on each bag of paddy.
Both farmers and millers have been speaking out about the figure ($400M) saying it is just a big figure that can do little in the context of the rice industry.
According to farmers, it costs $74,000 to produce an acre of rice with a yield of 30 bags per acre.
Following record prices for rice last year, local farmers were getting as much as $6000 per bag of paddy.
However, prices fell on the world market after several rice producing countries upped productions.
Many local farmers, gambling on the high prices, planted more rice making this year’s production the biggest ever crop for Guyana.
The rice industry accounts for a significant portion of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and is second to sugar as the largest foreign export earner.

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