After days of protest for better prices for a bag of paddy, Essequibo Rice Farmers have returned to the fields following a meeting with Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha last Thursday at the Anna Regina Multilateral School in Region Two, Pomeroon-Supenaam.
The Minister, while addressing the Farmers’ concerns on paddy prices, announced that they would get a small increase of $200 for a bag of paddy. “The Government, through the Ministry of Agriculture, has spoken with millers on the Essequibo Coast, who agreed they will pay $3700 per bag, instead of $3500 per bag,” the Minister told angry Farmers.
“They offering $3400 for a bag of paddy, then check the price for fertilizer, raised from $5000 to $10,600 per bag, and now the rice millers want to pay us lil and nothing for our products. The price for everything needed to grow and harvest our crop has skyrocketed also, this won’t pay off,” a Rice Farmer related to the Minister.
The Guyana Chronicle Newspaper in its January 19, 2020 edition, reported that PPP’s Presidential Candidate, Irfaan Ali, at a rally, at Anna Regina Car Park, Damon Square promised that VAT will be removed from all agriculture equipment and machinery which will enable farmers to step closer to profitability. He assured the Pomeroon-Supenaam Region residents that should the PPP party win the elections on March 2, 2020, the Government of Guyana will take full responsibility for the rice industry.
Sadly, since being installed into office in August of 2020 by way of questionable votes, the PPP regime’s economic management of Guyana has been nothing but one abysmal failure after the next; as is evident with the many protests across the country. In an invited comment, APNU+AFC Member of Parliament Shurwayne Holder revealed that Rice Farmers are paying over $10,000 per bag for fertilizer today, compared to $5,000 per bag under the APNU+AFC Government.
Holder is calling on the Government to keep its promises to the Rice Farmers and save the industry from otherwise imminent collapse.
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