The installed PPP regime has refused to come to the aid of rice farmers Region 2, Pomeroon-Supenaam, and Region 2, East Berbice-Corentyne. Farmers began to protest in Berbice two weeks ago because the big milling companies suddenly dropped the price they are paying farmers for paddy. Millers have reduced the price for paddy from $70,000 to $65,000 per tonne. The farmers have asked the PPP regime for help, however, most recently Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall has said that the PPP regime will not intervene. Nandlall said, “as a government, we wish to subscribe to the notion that the market must regulate these things.” In describing the PPP’s hands-off policy, Nandlall indicated that the PPP has no intention of helping Guyanese by taking action against the high cost of living. He said that, “The administration does not wish to implement a ‘pricing regime’ that will mandate the costs for [any] goods.”
The protests by desperate farmers from several villages intensified during the last week as farmers placed tractor tires across the road at the Number 43 entrance to Blackbush Polder and blocked the roads at Lesbeholden and Johanna with vehicles and farming equipment. The farmers lamented that the cost of fertilizer alone suddenly more than doubled from $5,000 per bag to $10,600 per bag. Also, seed paddy cost went up from $5,000 to $8,000; the rise in cost for workmen to throw manure went from $25,000 to $40,000 and the price for manure rose from $1,000 to $1,500.
