Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo is assuring rice farmers that the government is working on solutions to address the issue of low paddy prices and the oversupply of the commodity on the market.
“Right now, we are working in the government on some arrangement and hopefully, we’ll be able to get the prices back up,” Jagdeo said at his weekly press conference on Thursday.
“We’ve been talking to the millers and coming up with an initiative which we will unveil shortly,” he added, noting that securing new markets is also on the agenda.
Millers have indicated that they would be offering $5000 per tonne of rice paddy when harvesting commences.
Rice farmers in the Black Bush Polder (BBP) on Tuesday, February 21, 2025 blocked sections of the main access road at Lesbeholden, cutting off vehicular traffic, in protest over the price being offered by millers for paddy. The protest escalated and tractors wheels, carts and other large items were placed across the road as the farmers demanded that the Government intervene.
The Vice President reminded that in 2024, the government had intervened and removed the commission paid to the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) by millers, enabling them the opportunity to increase payments to farmers.
He said other investments have been made in the sector since assuming office in 2020 including the distribution of seed paddy, fertilisers and chemicals, removal of taxes from agriculture equipment and investments in drainage, irrigation and farm to market roads.
On that note, he urged farmers not to pay heed to the opposition which is promising higher prices for rice. Jagdeo reminded that paddy prices dropped from $9,000 per bag to $2,100 during the APNU+AFC’s term in office while that administration refused to offer assistance under the pretext that ‘rice is a private industry’.
Rice prices have been falling on the world market and is predicted to fall even lower.
For the first crop in 2025, over 72,000 acres are under rice cultivation in the region.
Head of the Rice Producers Association (RPA) Leeka Rambrich has said that there are not enough mills in the region to take off all of the rice that will be produced this crop.
He says that countrywide, Guyana is expected to produce in excess of eight million bags of paddy this crop.
“There is no way that the mills in the country will be able to handle all of that; they do not have the capacity to take off all that paddy,” Rambrich said.
Moreover, Rambrich said there is still 90,000 tonnes of rice in the system from the last crop and markets have not been secured for them.
On Thursday, Jagdeo indicated that the government will also have to start looking for more markets as Guyana’s rice production continues to increase.
The Vice President said there is also a need for more promotion on the use of the rice for industrialisation. “For more value-added activities,” he stated.
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