For the past century the rice industry has been an important component of Guyana's economy. A vital export produce and foreign currency earner.

Because the majority of rice producers have been small farmers without means or skills to export their crops, the British colonial government created the Rice Marketing Board. The RMB provided a ready market to rice farmers. It was intended to be run professionally in the interests of producers, millers and the economy.

Over time, bribery of RMB officials by millers for better grades and higher prices took root in the system. The Guyana Rice Development Board [GRDB] replaced the RMB. The corrupt system remained. Millers have been the main perpetrators and beneficiaries. Farmers are usually the losers.

Until such a time as farmers can organize and run their own marketing body, there will be a need for the GRDB.

The Essequibo protest shows that the nation is in distress

Dear Editor, As it relates to all Guyana, our proposition is that the minority PPP regime does not possess the national will, skills set, and intellectual capacity to get things done right in the country. Not only they do not have the ability to solve our national issues, they do not have the trust and confidence of the people, including many of their own supporters, who have abandoned them in droves. The recent unrest by hundreds of rice farmers in Essequibo was primarily due to money owed to them by the millers which the government failed to intervene, despite several requests by the farmers. It clearly shows that not only are those farmers in Essequibo in distress, it’s the entire country. Another proposition is that the jaded Ramotar/Jagdeo cabal doesn’t care what happens to our beloved Guyana, provided it does not have any direct adverse effect on them, their relatives and wealthy friends. It is quite evident that there are those in the PPP who prefer to let things remain unchanged, such as not to have the Public Procurement Commission and other monitoring institutions as mandated by the Constitution, because this has provided them with the opportunity to continue their massive corrupt practices and to use the state resources to enrich themselves, relatives and friends. We believe that there is an abundance of natural talent in the country to solve the nation’s problems, so there can be no excuse by the PPP not to find solutions that will address the major problems. The only excuse is that the PPP is grossly incompetent. The rice farmers uprising in Essequibo – which is considered to be the quietest county in the country – clearly shows that the PPP cabal have abandoned the rice farmers, just as they did with the sugar workers and civil servants, teachers and nurses. The people of Essequibo are frustrated and fed up with the backwardness and crookedness exhibited by the regime. How does the regime expect the rice farmers to survive when they have to wait in excess of three months for the millers to pay them? Their calls for the President and the Minister of Agriculture to intervene have fallen on deaf ears. It is obvious that the lack of talent and skills in the PPP is deep-rooted and is evident by the many square pegs in round holes. Unless they change their selfish, vindictive and corrupt ways, end cronyism and nepotism, and stop their race-bait politics, the electorate, especially the youths will not be kind to them in the next general election. At the end of the day, the present and future of the country is in the hands of the people, especially the youths; not the greedy PPP cabal. Logic and sound reasoning suggests that if after 22 years in office, the PPP has not been able to solve the nation’s problems—corruption, crime and floods—that have plagued the country, then they will not be able to do so in the next 20 years.  How can the country develop and the lives of the needy be improved by a group of dictators whose only goal is to rape the Treasury and build mansions. The leaders are so incompetent that they cannot even keep the city clean, fix the potholes on the streets, end the blackouts, and provide adequate potable water to the citizens. All they are capable of doing is casting blame on the opposition, the private media and diplomats, including the US Ambassador, for everything. The minority PPP regime must accept full responsibility for turning Guyana into a failed state. What the private media (particularly Kaieteur News) and the opposition have done is to expose the wicked agendas and massive corrupt practices. We call on the people to demand good governance, accountability and transparency from the corrupt regime. The time for being afraid to speak up and demonstrate distaste for the poor administration has long gone and what we are witnessing today with the uprising in Essequibo is a nation in distress which is giving out loud SOS signals to those who are willing to use legitimate means to make a positive difference in the country and thus end the reign of this incompetent regime. By stripping Naith Ram, leader of the region’s Rice Association and AFC councillor naked, shows that the behaviour of the police has reached an all-time low. They have murdered, tortured and sodomized innocent citizens, and now they have stripped an adult naked. What else is left for this corrupt and incompetent PPP police force to do? For the past 22 years, but more so during the twelve wicked and vindictive years of the immoral Jagdeo regime, the leaders of the PPP have allowed power and the lust for power to consume and corrupt them absolutely. Therefore, we rely on the people to do what is necessary to change the political landscape of Guyana. For we have always believed in the people who have the power and will to chart a new direction for the country. Asquith Rose and Harish Singh

Thanks for the insight Gil. A GRDB is the answer to the current problems facing rice farmers.

Hey Hey Hey PPP put all dem egg in dem communist Venezueala frens rice basket. Watch and learn how dem stuppidness goh backfiah.

Ramsammy is a dunce.

Yuh telling me! That man boast all the time he ain't helping heself he goan die a pauper. If that is true! He is an idiot, just knowing those who steal the peoples money and still boasting of how he love Guyana and Guyanese people.