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Region 2 farmers continue to suffer from non-payment by millers
DEAR EDITOR,
The stigma of Cinderella seems reluctant to leave Essequibo Coast. Ministers of Government rarely visit there, even from the era of the PPP.
A group of concerned farmers agitating for prompt payment by millers had to block the road and burn tyres to get President Ramotar to visit. When he visited he made no commitment, as a result the number one obstacle, late payment to rice farmers, continues to put the latter through great distress.
At this moment, many rice farmers are waiting payment from millers to replant for the May/June to September crop. Those who have twice the working capital (two times the cash required to crop their lands) have replanted. The others are languishing in distress waiting for the millers to pay, while the May/June planting season goes by.
This has been the Achilles heel of the rice industry on the Essequibo coast. This has been the main reason for stress-related illness and the slow turnaround of economic activity in Region two, because the region is highly dependent on the rice industry.
The road to prompt payment by millers to farmers has been long, arduous and never-ending. I recall in his first attempt at tabling the Rice Factories Act, a PPP MP had asked for millers to get four months (120 days) to pay farmers before any penalty. Outrageous! Almost all varieties of rice take less than 120 days from sowing to harvesting. Totally out of context, the Rice Factories Act was reduced to 40 days and 2% interest over normal bank rates. No miller has ever honoured this arrangement in late payment to farmers.
The PPP missed a glorious opportunity to solve this problem when they had received a large grant from the EU, around 2008, to assist the rice industry. These monies could have been put in a revolving fund and loaned to millers to pay farmers promptly at a low interest rate. A little was shared to farmers and the lure of 10% kickback inspired them to spend it on two double-door kokers and replacement of the Dawa Pumps.
The APNU/AFC alliance had made many promises to farmers during their campaign. When the PPP exited in 2015, the first assistance to the rice industry by the coalition was to declare it as a private industry, in which Government has no hands. In recognition of this, farmers ceased any form of agitation to get better conditions in the industry. They have accepted their fate and are suffering in silence.
Farmers are faced with the high cost of production-rising prices on fuel and fertilizers, and the Coalition had vatted agro chemicals too. Profit margin in the industry is very small. At this moment, the 50% paid by some millers to farmers on paddy sold is totally inadequate to finance them to go back into cultivation. They have to watch this May/June sowing time go by in grief. Livelihoods are being affected and there is no one to help!
The industry remains in limbo. The injustice to farmers continues. They have to invest monies to acquire their inputs to produce paddy. The millers take their paddy as a raw material without investing a dime. The millers process the paddy, sell rice, broken, chips and bran (products derived from paddy), then pay the farmers when and how they feel like.
In short, the miller, after building a factory, does not have to invest a dime to purchase raw material to do business. Farmers sometimes borrow from the banks to cultivate paddy. Sometimes they are being paid 3 months after harvesting – this would cause them to pay 3 months of extra interest through no fault of theirs. Added to that, it is important that paddy is planted within its season to be in unison with the weather for harvesting.
Late payment commits many farmers to plant late – many have lost their crops in the past because of planting late and being caught by rains when it is time to harvest.
One does not have to be a rocket scientist to see that the farmers are the losers in the above scenario. Successive governments have failed to address this grave disadvantage to farmers. Will the Coalition change its hands-off approach and do something for the poor farmers?
Rudolph Singh
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