Corentyne rice farmers appeal for urgent help to save crop

Apr 19, 2021 News

Kaieteur News-Rice farmers from across the Corentyne Coast gathered yesterday on two separate occasions to engage Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha as they sought urgent intervention to save their crop.
Persistent rainfall over the last few weeks has resulted in many dams becoming impassible, leaving many farmers struggling to transport their paddy from the fields. In some cases, farmers have not been able to reap some of their crops because their fields have been flooded.

Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha during his address

During the first meeting, at the #48 Primary School, Corentyne, rice farmers appealed to the subject Minister for immediate action so they would be able to salvage the remainder of their crop.
One farmer, Mahendranauth Doolchand, said certain sections of the dam, which he uses to transport his paddy are in a deplorable state, putting a halt on transporting his paddy from the field.
“Sir, we have over 200 acres of land, but the land is underwater, and we can’t get to take out the paddy. All we want is for you to fix the dam so that we can take out the paddy. We’re from Number 69 Village…We have to travel 14 miles to go there and bring out the paddy. Certain parts of the dam are very bad. We urgently need your help because, in five days, four half tanks of paddy can’t reach out yet,” Doolchand said.
Another farmer, Anand Tulsi, said he lost millions of dollars in paddy and sought the Minister’s assistance to save the remainder of his crop.
“We small farmers cannot bring out one bag. The dam situation is terrible. Rice that was supposed to cut since the first week in March left there and all rotten out. We need help. Right now, we need some help. We need a machine to fix the dams so that we can bring out our paddy,” the farmer said.
Meanwhile, farmers at Maida raised similar issues at the second meeting.
One farmer said tractors could not traverse the dam to transport the paddy because of the state of the dam. Another said, works need to be carried out on both the trench and the dam in her area.
After listening to the farmers, Minister Mustapha committed to having works carried out on all the dams that need fixing.
The Minister said, “Before the rains came, we expended a lot of money to fix the dams, and we are going to fix them again. I have a request from the Water Users Chairman for funds to fix about 10 dams in the Number 52/Number 74 areas. I will approve this, and through the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), we will have works commence to rehabilitate those dams from as soon as tomorrow. I’ll also ask the NDIA to do an urgent assessment of those other dams that need to be fixed, and we will assign machines to fix them.”
Over at Maida, Minister Mustapha told farmers that a team from the Ministry would be visiting the area today to meet residents.
Kaieteur News understands that a small committee will be formed to look at all the canals and dams that need to be rehabilitated. The subject Minister publicly committed to having the works done and ensuring farmers benefit from proper infrastructure.

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