Georgetown: The Ministry of Agriculture has been engaging rice farmers and millers across the rice growing regions, over the past weeks with the aim of arriving at a consensus on the price rice farmers are being paid per bag of paddy by millers.
The meetings have seen some millers heeding the call of the Ministry of Agriculture and have agreed to increase the price they are willing to pay, from $3000 to $3500 and $3700per bag.
The Ministry of Agriculture would like to thank the Millers who have complied with the plea of the Ministry and urges all the players within the rice growing regions to work together for the betterment of the industry.
The Agriculture Minister has also instructed the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), to begin a process of placing independent graders at all mills. Millers are allowed to have their own graders but within a short period, only GRDB graders to be used to issue paddy grading certificate when farmers paddy arrive at mills.
One of the concerns that the Ministry of Agriculture has also been addressing is late payment to farmers who are still owned for paddy sold during the last crop.
The Ministry of Agriculture is working out arrangements with millers for payment of farmers to being this week. In terms of payment for the new crop, the Ministry of Agriculture is also working with millers to put arrangements in place for rapid payment.
Agriculture Minister Dr. Leslie Ramsammy and team will continue the outreach exercise throughout this coming week.
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