…in rice They tell you if you work hard, save and invest, you’ll get ahead. Tell that to rice farmers in Guyana!! While most folks have turned away from the land and would rather dally in air-conditioned offices, rice farmers are out then in the sun, rain and mud to ensure that the crop comes in. Yet it’s clear they’re not taken seriously by the new powers-that-be.

Governments in modern economies are supposed to structure their activities to give incentives for the populace to “do the right thing”. Such as not just expecting handouts and other freeness but to put their shoulder to the wheel to “produce or perish”. So how is it rice farmers are producing but yet perishing? And make no bones about it – if the prices of paddy doesn’t rise to at least cover production costs, a whole lot of rice farmers will perish. Literally.

Now is not the time for finger pointing or playing the blame game. The crisis in rice and paddy prices right now is on account of the cancellation of the Venezuelan 200,000 tonne market. Whether Venezuela already had plans to move elsewhere (it had signed a 100,000 tonne agreement for 2015 with Suriname back in Sept 2014) or diversify its sources is not the point. What is the point is that the new Government of Guyana should’ve factored rice into their response on the Venezuelan demarche on our borders after the elections.

There were so many pluses to the Venezuelan rice market: prices were sky high, we didn’t have to pay for it up front, and most importantly we could use it to offset cost of petroleum products shipped by Venezuela. No need to secure foreign funds – we could just pay farmers with our non-convertible Guyana dollars. All it needed was for the Government to engage the Venezuelans on the rice contract – even as we protested their revanchist claims. We’ve been doing this for the last decade, so what’s new??

What made matters worse is – and it’s quite obvious now – the new Government had no back-up plan to divert the rice to other markets. Yet in their manifesto they boasted about doing exactly this: “The Coalition’s goal is to seek to increase farmers’ share of the rice and paddy prices received from export market agreements. The APNU+AFC Coalition would Negotiate additional new international markets for rice from Guyana!!”

And imagine that the new, invisible Agri Minister has the chutzpah to now say, “It’s not my job man!!” When they needed the votes, it was “promise them anything!!” But we hope the Government will start seeing rice farmers as human beings.

…on sporting vs working Businesses in the city have already received letters from the Government to spruce up their business places and clean up their surroundings for the Independence Celebrations next May 26!! Imagine those same businesses are all laying off workers and squeezing their collective bellies because of the collapse in the economy and all the Government’s can think about is the next Big Bash.

They can’t do a GuyExpo; they can’t send trade missions to find rice markets – but we must make sure we jump up next May. And the irony is that the celebrations are supposed to be about INDEPENDENCE!! Gold is down, sugar is down, rice is down, timber is down, bauxite is down – but not to worry…we’re INDEPENDENT!! Don’t you get a warm glow when you think about that, dear reader.

For your Eyewitness – he’s getting a slow burn, that’s what. And he suspects that a lot of business owners are doing the same. This Government is heading for a fall.

…and Icons If it’s one thing we can look out for its cricket. The CPL T-20 Tournament was the last bright spot in the economy. Cricket is big business.

So how come we treat the best cricketer this nation produced, Chandrapaul, like dirt??