E’bo rice farmers continue protest action over outstanding payments

Mar 15, 2014 News

Essequibo rice farmers are resilient in their call to have an audience with the Ministry of Agriculture to air their concerns of the low prices being offered for paddy and outstanding payments owed to them by millers.
Yesterday the farmers once again staged a protest march from the high bridge at Anna Regina to the Cotton Field New market.
They chanted “We want more than $3000 for a bag of paddy.”

Essequibo Rice Farmers continued their protest action yesterday.

Alliance For Change (AFC) Regional Councillor, Naith Ram is also agitating for the Government to set up a fund through NICIL where millers would be able to borrow monies to effect prompt payments to farmers in exchange for their paddy.
Additionally, Ram is lobbying for the Government to further establish a mill to which both the Government and farmers would have equal access in an attempt to have a more effective and transparent operation, especially in the Region.
Ram stressed that to date almost 60M dollars are still owed to farmers from the previous crop.
According to the Regional councillor, on average, a farmer would invest approximately $600,000 and his returns are way below his investment.
“It cannot pay …we farmers are suffering.”
While farmers continue to protest for better prices, millers are also finding it difficult in sourcing efficient markets for their rice. Most of the millers in the Region are solely reliant on Government to have their rice shipped to Venezuela.