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Pres. Ali tells Region Six farmers will stockpile rice, invest in better variety
Kaieteur News – President Irfaan Ali on Wednesday promised the rice farmers in Region Six to invest in building storage capacity to stockpile rice and new varieties to ensure increased yields.
President Irfaan Ali
During a meeting at the Skeldon Sugar Factory, Ali informed the farmers government, over the next two weeks will be engaged in a series of meetings to find a solution for the low prices currently being offered.
“You have to be involved. We have to be involved, the millers have to be involved, and of course, the markets have to be involved. You have to talk to the markets. We agree that this is not us, anybody fighting each other. One thing y’all know for sure is that you got a government who support you and a government that represents you and walk with you. So, there will be a lot of opportunists coming around now, political opportunists, and I’m very frank with you, who would come around as if they love you and care about you and they want to represent you,” he said.
Ali assured the farmers that his administration will work with them because they love them and genuinely want them to succeed. However, taking into consideration the complex situation at hand with dumping prices, markets with outstanding monies and over supply, they must find ways to maneuver.
“…as government, we are trying to navigate through that programme. You know, we’ve already said that in all of the rice producing regions, we have to now build storage capacity the government, where we will stockpile also. So, we can stockpile, we have to have the capacity nationally to stockpile maybe 5 million tons of rice, because we want rice to succeed,” the president said.
He urged farmers that they need to continue to cultivate the crop, as the government wants to continue to invest in “better variety to give you higher yield.” In order to do this, the appropriate infrastructure is needed to support it.
The head-of-state also promised the farmers that experts will be brought in from around the world to assess how alternative crops can be incorporated on every one out of ten acres.
“Whether we do case farming for crab which has high value big market, we can put a processing plant to do the crab meat. So, for every 10 acres of rice farm, we have to have one acre of high yielding production,” he reasoned.
Ali promised the farmers that if they agree to this plan, it will be invested in and they will get the assistance needed, as this kind of agro business diversification is important for cash flow.
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