Planting seeds of rice production

RICE can be grown locally. Yet 90 per cent of this vital commodity is imported. According to some estimates, this contributes anywhere between $100 million- $200 million to the food import bill annually. Which means that, since the heyday of rice production ended roughly a decade ago, billions have been spent to put rice on our tables.

The UNC government’s continuation, on May 20, of a seed distribution programme begun under the PNM in 2022 is, thus, a welcome development.

“This is the work that was done when prime minister Rowley led a team to Guyana,” observed former minister in the agriculture ministry Avinash Singh on May 21 when asked to comment on this month’s simple seed distribution ceremony presided over by Minister of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries Ravi Ratiram.

Said former senator Singh, “We signed a memorandum of understanding with Guyana and rice was one of the priorities.” He added, “I welcome the continuation of this project. It’s sound PNM policy.”

But if the PNM can take credit for fruit being borne during the fledgling days of the Kamla Persad-Bissessar administration, it must also own up to the startling decline in the rice sector over the last ten years.

Rice has been in a downward spiral. Production moved from 2,332 metric tonnes in 2014 to just 445 metric tonnes in 2024. This decline must be reversed.

It is essential that a country feeds itself. In a world now in the throes of economic and political turmoil, facing many existential threats and with traditional distribution networks in question, we cannot rely on imports.

Regardless of who can take ultimate credit, Mr Ratiram’s continuation of the Guyana seed initiative, even if symbolic, is a good first step.

Distributing seeds is easy, but the challenges facing rice farming are difficult and deep.

Among the problems that have caused farming decline over the years is a long list of aggravating factors. Farmers have been frustrated because of an inability to get water abstraction licences. Simple bureaucratic errors – like a wrong date on a permit – can cause the loss of acres and acres of product. These planters have also suffered from the untimely payment of subsidies.

Market uncertainty over the years caused by issues relating to rice mills has not helped, though there is now a new parboiling plant. Still, there have been continued low crop yields because of the poor viability of some imported seeds. Extreme weather, too, has disrupted harvesting schedules and production levels.

The government proposes to use a $2 million allocation to invest in access roads, drainage, irrigation, on-site technical support and to address the land tenure and land security issues farmers face. It is assessing other needs. All of this it must stick to. But it must also confront the need for a diversity of rice varieties, special measures to deal with the effects of the climate crisis, more intensive land use, and for the easing of administrative barriers that too often stand in the way of farmers doing their work.