Harvesting of the Spring Crop will commence by the end of the new week. Councillor Naith Ram said that at least three small portions of rice at Golden Fleece, Essequibo Coast, have already been harvested by some farmers.
Ram said that some 80,000 bags of paddy still remain in the system but at least one miller has been making tedious efforts to have the rice shipped to markets in Dominica and Venezuela before the end of February.
According to reports, the miller has indicated that 600 tons of paddy is air marked to be shipped to Dominica, while another 1000 bags is destined for Venezuela, once he is given the green light through a contractual agreement between Guyana Rice Development Board and the Government.
Ram has further indicated that so far, farmers on the Essequibo Coast were not briefed as to what price would be paid to them for their paddy for this crop. He has however, asserted that while during this crop farmers didn’t complain of any major concerns, one problem continues to plague farmers and that is the large amount of acreages that has been infested.
He said that farmers are forced to pick the bad rice grains manually, which in some cases would reduce the crop.
Farmers are calling for the water scheduled system to be put in place with monitors manning the irrigation canals with boats.
Some 37,200 acreages of rice was cultivated for the spring
crop.