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Rice farmers cry out: No price increase, no way to repay loans, pay workers
Kaieteur News – Rice farmers in Region Five are clamoring at the shockingly low prices being offered by millers for this crop, contending that if there is not an increase, they will be unable to repay their loans, pay the rent on their lands and pay workers.
Some farmers have began to harvest despite low prices.
This publication received reports that some millers are now offering a mere $2,800 per bag of paddy, $1200 less than what they received last crop, when the $400 government subsidy was added.
While attempts to contact millers for details proved futile, Carlos Carbo, general manager of SAJ Rice Group in Burma Road Mahaicony, explained that the price being offered for paddy is in accordance with international market price. He said over the last two years, rice price has been on the decline.
“So, this is a commodity, and it depends on how the world market and the world prices are. The world price dropped in 45 per cent, and so it goes according with that, because if it doesn’t drop, we cannot sell…The mill have to buy from the farmers, and the mill has to export it. And when we export, we compete with the international price,” he said.
Roopnarine Etwaroo, a rice farmer from Mahaicony told this publication that in Region Five millers are offering $2800 per bag of paddy, which is a big fall compared to the $4000 they enjoyed last crop.
“So currently, the price is set at $2800 which is like a break-even point, or even under a break-even point, because last time, our yield was higher because we hadn’t much incidence of like gandi and so on. Right now, at least about 80-90 per cent of the farmers are being affected by bugs which has affected the yield overall,” he said.
Speaking on behalf of the farmers in his area, Etwaroo said the lower yields as well as the lower prices, will cause farmers to leave.
He explained that at $2800, by the time farmers offset their expenses, like fertiliser, labor, harvesting and transportation and the reparation for seed paddy, they may fall into debt, as everyone has raised the prices for their services, but paddy prices ran in the opposite direction.
Etwaroo added, “The lands on which we are planting too, are not owned by the farmers. We are leasing from people to us. Well, so by the time you pay all your expenses and your juice, farmers left with almost practically nothing to go back to the fields, because right now it’s a drop of $1,200 in price from the last price.”
Asked if he would be returning to the fields, the farmer revealed that he already has his seed paddy which was bought before he became aware of the going price.
Another farmer, Mark (only name given) from Weldaad West Coast Berbice, told this publication that while the prices surprised him, his crop is almost at the harvest point.
“We gotta do and try and see what to do with it. I don’t take it on…The paying system for paddy is tight. They giving 15 per cent and then 60-90 day you getting the rest. Imagine I went to do some work but I just signed off ‘cause I wasn’t able no more. I got loans to pay, I have no idea how it will pay off,” the man lamented.
Meanwhile the Government of Guyana, has committed to engaging with rice farmers and millers in order to assess the situation with current prices of paddy and address it as soon as possible.
Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha told Kaieteur News subsequent to being sworn in as a member of cabinet that “In relation to the prices for paddy, the farmers recently start to harvest it, harvest paddy, and I’ll be looking at that… I haven’t had a chance to talk to farmers to find out what are the real issues. So, in the coming weeks, I’ll be meeting with the farmers, meeting the millers to work with (and) see what systems are in place,” he said.
Mustapha added that he is only now aware that prices have fallen to $2800, so he will have to meet with the Guyana Rice Millers Association (GRMA) as well to have a better understanding of the issue at hand.
“Remember, over the last crop, we would have implemented a system where we make up the price of paddy. So I’ve been looking at it. I’m not saying that we’ll do it immediately, but I have to listen to the concern, analyze the situation, see what we can do to resolve the matter,” he assured.
He continued, “in relation to paddy bugs, we have a system in place where we are working with farmers to eradicate it and, first of all, to control it and eradicate it. I think we have been very successful over the last three crops,” he said.
The minister added that farmers are provided with chemicals and the expertise of technical staff, who work along with them directly to get the pests under control. It is his opinion that over the last three to four crops damages have been limited.
On Tuesday at a press conference held at the Office of the President, President Ali said that this crop is yet another exciting one, however “the international market and international prices is not as exciting as the production itself. So, I wanted to give some amount of information on what is happening in relation to the global market. Now, when you look at the rice production globally, is it an all-time high, with major producers, exporters such as India, Vietnam and Brazil, having record levels of production, not only record levels of production, but record level of stockpile.”
He explained that this glut in the market is as a consequence of it being flooded hence the low prices. The weighted average per ton of white rice is $450 this is according to export quotas at the end of August. This is a $14 reduction from a month ago and a $228 from a year ago.
“So not withstanding this, the Government of Guyana, as you know, has supported the rice sector enormously. Recently, we had $2 billion of price support to farmers, which ensure farmers receive a price of $4,000 per bag. We provided farmers with $3.6 billion in fertilizer, flood relief and seed paddy assistance,” the president reminded.
Going on to remind of everything else that was done he added that, “Now that tells you that when you look at it, we have, whilst we are looking at ways in which we confront this challenge, we have exhausted many of the tools available to assist farmers and Millers. Nonetheless, today, the Minister of Finance and Agriculture had a meeting with Millers. They’re expected to meet again later this week, and then to have meeting with farmers across the different region, for us to come up together with ideas to ease the impact and the burden of this, of the falling global prices, the glut on the market and the record level of stockpile so that our farmers the burden can be minimised on our farmers.”
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