Agri. Minister warns rice farmers to be cautious during harvesting

Apr 10, 2021 News

– As high-intensity rainfall is expected over the weekend

Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha, and other officials at one of the pumps visited yesterday.

Kaieteur News – With the Hydromet Department predicting instances of high-intensity rainfall over the next three to four days, Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha, yesterday conducted a site visit to two of the recently acquired drainage pumps in Georgetown. One of the pumps is located at Sussex Street, while the other is at Ruimveldt.
Following his visit, the Minister said it was important for him to assess the city’s drainage structures ahead of the gloomy weather forecast, since many areas in Georgetown are prone to flooding.
The Minister was keen to remind that the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) was able to boost its drainage capacity with three additional pumps through an Indian Line of Credit. Because of this, he said, “We were able to purchase 12 additional pumps at a cost of US $3.5 million. One of these hydro-flow pumps cost US $500,000 and we have three of those in Georgetown to boost the city’s drainage capacity. One of these pumps is capable of draining 35,520 gallons of water per minute.”
The Minister added, “With such a high drainage capacity, I’m hoping we can avoid the kind of flooding that we have experienced over the last few months. The City Engineer has also assured me that he has enough human resources to manage these structures to not only ensure they remain operable, but operate on a timely basis because we do not want to have a repeat of what took place two weeks ago.”
Further to this, Mustapha said rice farmers should take every precaution during this time when traversing the dams to transport their paddy from the fields. In this regard, the Minister said, “We are currently in the harvesting season with about 50% of the rice fields completed. Ahead of the harvesting period, the Ministry would have expended millions of dollars to rehabilitate a number of dams, so that farmers could transport their paddy out of the fields. Due to the inclement weather, many of those dams are once again becoming impassable. I want to assure our farmers that we will continue to do maintenance of these dams but at the same time, I want to appeal to the farmers to use the dams in a responsible manner, so that everyone would have a chance to bring out their produce.”
He added, “With the figures I’m receiving from the GRDB, I’m anticipating a bumper crop this season. We have seen an increase in our quota to Brazil from 10,000 tonnes to 34,000 tonnes of rice. We also have new markets in Hungary and Latvia so, generally, our overall export quota will be increasing and at the same time, we will see an increase in production this crop. This is why we are working to put things in place so that we can avoid or, at least, minimise farmers’ losses and also avoid flooding in residential areas,” Minister Mustapha said.
The subject Minister also said that he would be conducting further visits to pumps around the Coast over the next few days.
Minister Mustapha was accompanied by NDIA’s Chief Executive Officer, Fredrick Flatts, NDIA’s Board Chairman, Lionel Wordsworth, and other officials from the NDIA.