Urgent diversification of the rice and sugar industries

Dear Editor, I would like to commend all those involved in putting together the National Rice Industry Conference. The feature address by the President and the presenters covered most of the concerns in the industry, except its sustainability. The farming community was well represented and did air its concerns, mostly on timely payment by millers, ways of bringing down the cost of production and paddy price for the coming crop. Unfortunately, no firm decision was made on any of the concerns, and no mention was made on sustainability of the industry. It was highlighted that the number of farmers are getting smaller and holdings are getting larger, obviously for a reason. Naturally, the bigger farmers are better equipped to have a greater return on investment, because of lower cost of production and higher yields. Lots of numbers have been thrown around for cost of production; however, I have decided to consider the numbers presented by Mr John Tracey, as they seem most realistic. Consider $80,000 for cost of production of one acre and the farmer gets 30 bags per acre and is paid $3000 per bag. Then his profit per acre per crop is $10,000. For two crops per year its $20,000 per acre. The National minimum wage per month is $50,000; that is $600,000 per year. This shows that a farmer should cultivate a minimum of 30 acres of paddy before he can make the minimum wage, which is impossible for the farmer, wife and children to support. There are many farmers who cultivate much less than this acreage, resulting in lots of dissatisfied farmers. A farmer cultivating five acres will only earn $100,000 per year. The problem is compounded by the fact that there is not any other form of employment available on a regular basis. Obviously, this is the root cause of the problem, but was still not addressed at the Conference. Bottom line is that it’s not a rice industry issue, but a social issue. It is important that this issue is addressed urgently and a solution found. The best and only solution at this time is diversification, which will result in less acreage under paddy cultivation, resulting in less rice production, which might not be a bad idea, as we are very vulnerable, because of having to market about 75 per cent of our production, while only about five per cent of world’s production is traded. Mr Kuldip gave a 32 per cent of cost for labour, which is way too high, as the industry is relatively mechanised, and the farmer is left with lots of spare time, which can only be taken up by him doing another job. A farmer cultivating five acres of paddy, earning $100,000 per year, which is just minimum wage for two months, lives way below the poverty line. With diversification, he can work wonders by earning lots more in a year, and keeping himself beneficially occupied year round. An ADP (Export Agriculture Diversification Programme) should be introduced and involves three Clusters: Fruit and vegetables, livestock and aquaculture/ aquaponics. This was implemented recently but failed miserably, mainly because of non-involvement of stakeholders and the authority. This system can be implemented, both in the rice and sugar industries. Consider a rice farmer or a Guyana sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) employee with five acres of land. There will be a mixture of livestock, fruits and vegetables and aquaculture/aquaponics. The mixture will be: Aquaculture/aquaponics – two acres to produce 5000 fish per acre livestock… A combination of two dairy cows and six goats… zero grazing. Fruits and vegetables – a mixture of cassava, sweet potatoes, black eye, boulanger, tomato, pepper, sorrel, passion fruit, pumpkin, water melon,etc. The layout is very important, as the aquaponic system will be used to allow the farmer to utilise the water from the fish pond as a fertiliser and a source of moisture, resulting in a high priced organic crop. It is assumed that the farmer and his family (when available) will work six days per week at six hours per day, earning $5 000 per day; that is $30,000 per week equal $120,000 per month equal $1,440,000 per year against $100,000 per year if he were cultivating paddy and will also be occupied year round. At the end of the day, he will also have lots more available by sale of vegetables, milk, fish, and sale of live animals (goat and cattle).

Investment For the farmer to get started, the following will have to be done. 1. He will have to fence the five acres. 2. Dig two ponds a ton acre each. Acquire fingerlings and feed, infrastructure for drainage and irrigation already in place. 3. Acquire two dairy cows capable of producing two gallons milk each per day and six goats (ewes, capable of their off springs getting to 100 lbs at the end of one year and producing three births of two each in two years), utilising Artificial Insemination (AI) for both cattle and goats.

4. Gardening tools 5. Planting materials 6. Finance (fixed and variable) The farmer will expect some initial help from the Government as it’s a new idea to be executed. The five acres owned by the farmer, whether leased or transported has lots of value and can be held as security at a development bank, at an affordable interest rate. Because of the nature of the different crops to be cultivated, after a couple months, the farmer can start receiving income providing the market is available.

Markets Very, very important that this is assured before the farmer goes into production.

Technology The relevant agencies will have to become active. These are: NAREI – National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute GLDA – Guyana Livestock Development Agency NGMC – New Guyana Marketing Corporation

Respectfully, Beni Sankar, A A