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Pesticide Board blocks Aircraft Company from spraying rice fields
-miller, farmers say decisions will cost millions in losses
Almost 30 rice farmers from Berbice and Demerara are calling on Government to reverse a recent decision that barred a local aircraft company from spraying their crops with pesticides and fertilizers.
Nand Persaud, headquartered in Corentyne, Berbice, along with rice farmers, are unhappy over refusal for an aircraft company to do aerial pesticide spraying.
One of country’s biggest rice operations, Nand Persaud and Company Limited, said that the decision by the Pesticide and Toxic Chemicals Control Board (PTCCB) will cause millions of dollars in damage to the current rice crop and farmers.
The decision by the board is based on health and other safety concerns posed to citizens.
In a letter last week to Minister of Agriculture, Noel Holder, PTCCB’s Secretary, Trecia David, disclosed that her Board has met with Air Services Limited (ASL), a local charter company, to discuss a request to conduct aerial applications of pesticides.
ASL has been conducting aerial spraying services for farmers in Region Four, Five and Six for a number of years now. In addition to pesticides, also being sprayed aerially were fertilizers.
The aerial spraying, a major part of the work for rice farmers, was being coordinated by Nand Persaud, producers of Karibe Rice.
Nand Persaud is one of the biggest millers in the country, purchasing a significant quantity of rice from farmers.
The letter to Minister Holder also noted that the pesticide board held a meeting with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to discuss their position on the aircraft company’s Environmental Management Plan (EMP).
“The PTCCB, after meticulously reviewing the discussions of these meetings, wishes to advise that the initial decision of denial be upheld until a final decision on the EMP is provided by the EPA.”
Yesterday, when contacted, David said that the matter is being dealt with at the ministerial level and that she would need more details and permission to speak.
However, Haseef Yusuf, a spokesperson for Nand Persaud, explained the issue as worrying since many farmers are heavily dependent on aerial spraying of pesticides and fertilizers.
“As you know, we have been doing business with farmers across the coastlands for years now. We started aerial spraying a number of years now. We are at a critical stage now where the rice is flowering.”
Already, delays in spraying have affected the health of the current rice crops for several farmers.
“We are seeing a serious infestation of paddy bugs and caterpillar. If there is no spraying soon, farmers will be losing their crops. Many of them owe suppliers, workers and the banks.”
The denial of permission would also come at a time when rice was severely affected by a drought and now rainfall.
“We are facing another serious problem in the rice industry. There is a shortage of workers who are willing to spray pesticides, manually. They are willing to do fertilizers.”
Another problem that farmers have with PTCCB is that fact that the Guyana Sugar Corporation has been spraying its crops with no alarms raised about possible health damage for residents.
“We have almost 30 farmers from Demerara and Berbice who want to go public on this. They are facing a series of challenges including low prices. Almost 80 percent of about 48,000 acres of rice lands have been attacked by paddy bug and caterpillars.” The farmers and the company will on Thursday be hosting a press conference at the Nand Persaud’s Conference Hall at No. 36 Village, Corentyne, to talk about the situation.
“At the current time, the rice crop is greatly infested by paddy bugs and caterpillars and if left untreated will result in low yield and poor quality paddy and rice. Manual spraying is not effective since there is an acute shortage of manual labour and it is impossible to treat the nearly 50,000 acres of rice under cultivation in Region Six alone,” Yusuf said.
“The rice farmers are already faced with low prices and high costs of production. The use of technology in the form of aerial spraying is their only salvation at this time.”
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