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Poor infrastructure causing significant paddy losses for Cane Grove farmers
Rice farmers in Cane Grove, East Coast Demerara, have been losing thousands of acres of paddy, due to poor infrastructure.
This was attested to by Executive Member of the Alliance for Change (AFC), Rajendra Bisessar.
Accompanied by party Chairman Nigel Hughes; General Secretary- David Patterson; and other party executives, Bisessar said that a team visited the rice fields area.
Almost a full load of paddy lost after the deplorable dams caused this tractor-trailer to topple.
This was following complaints received about the various problems affecting rice farmers.
Of particular concern was the deplorable condition of the dams and bridges in the rice fields.
During an AFC press conference held at the Side Walk Café yesterday, Bisessar said that “we visited, and we were taken to the backyard using tractor-trailer. What we found and saw for ourselves was that the dams were in extremely bad shape.”
He said that during the visit, the team was taken to the site where a tractor-trailer which was maneuvering the dam to transport paddy, toppled.
When contacted, one of the rice farmers told Kaieteur News that a large percentage of their paddies are lost regularly due to such accidents.
“Dem things this getting too regular…it ain’t fair to us. We need proper facilities in here. We does wuk hard, and we get families we gah tek care of. When things like this ah happen, we does suffer; awe children does suffer; dem school wuk does suffer. Dem need fuh fix dem things this. It ain’t right,” the rice farmer called “Monster” pleaded.
Bisessar noted that even the “saved” loads of paddy, cannot be transported to the mills, since the bridges are “dilapidated”.
He said too that while the existing bridges are in a bad state, there are some areas where needed bridges are non-existent.
Bisessar said that farmers had asked that they, the AFC officials, visit the fields more often, since a bridge was built a day prior to the party’s planned visit.
The farmers also complained about the bad construction of that structure, Bisessar said. He added that while they were visiting, another bridge was being built.
“Some boards were being put up on some rotten beams. Farmers said that by the time the tractor would have crossed, some of those boards would have come loose,” the AFC executive said.
He told reporters that of the two water pumps, one has not been working for a long time, while other, which is in operational condition, had stopped working a week prior to his party’s visit.
This allowed for a significant amount of water being accumulated in the fields.
Bisessar said that “shockingly”, the pumps commenced working on the day of the AFC visit to the rice fields, but was shut down during the evening hours.
Upon enquires, the AFC officials said that the pump attendant related that he was ordered by his supervisors to shut the pump down around 17:00hrs.
“If the ground is wet and the paddy falls, it will be saved. But when it is wet and the paddy falls, it starts growing. They (the farmers) showed us some of the paddy that has started growing,” Bisessar said.
He added that over the past three weeks, farmers have made several complaints to the Rice Producers’ Association (RPA), but nothing has been done.
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