By Leon Suseran Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, has stated that Guyana will not accept Haiti’s price for Guyana’s rice. He added that Guyana will be seeking markets other than Venezuela in the near future. He was addressing rice farmers at the Guyana Rice Producers Association Conference in Region Six over the weekend.The Minister praised Venezuela and the late President Hugo Chavez and that country’s economic markets “for being so good to us [in Guyana]” where rice is concerned. “We must be grateful for President Chavez and President Maduro and we must not forget the leadership that we have got from President Jagdeo and President Ramotar.“We will continue to strengthen those relationships, but there is a limit—I think that we have reached a stage—that as much as Venezuela is taking from us—we have to continue to expand the Caribbean and 2European markets.”But Guyana must continue to see other markets. Haiti, he added, wants our rice, “but it’s the price, because while other countries will accept Haiti’s price, Guyana’s farmers will not accept Haiti’s price and that’s’ the negotiations we are going through now.”Dr Ramsammy stated that next week he will be negotiating with another country “for reasonable prices with the expectations that by 2014, they can procure approximately 50,000 tonnes of rice from Guyana. We are building that market to go along with the farmers’ efforts, to increase production.”He noted that the interests of the people and the country “sometimes become expediently spent for political gains.”“I believe that we will always have differences, but at the end of the day, we must work out these differences in the interest of these people and the interest of our country.”Dr Ramsammy also said that drainage poses a big problem in Guyana’s agricultural sector. He alluded to the many irrigation pumps that were built in the 1960s to aid in drainage. These included pumps at Dawa in Essequibo; Black Bush and Mibikuri Manarabisi .“They have served us well; those irrigation pumps are under stress right now.” He stated that the government has been looking for budgetary allocations to upgrade those irrigation pump stations “to serve our partners better, so you will see the 2014 budget—if we are allowed—reflecting an upgrade of Manarabisi and Mibikuri Irrigation Station.”Dr Ramsammy said that the Black Bush Polder was designed to lead drainage water out of Adventure and Number 43 Villages. “But at the time, Johanna was never considered—because Jagan demitted office in 1964 and under a new PPP government, we are correcting that situation. So as we speak, we have completed the construction of a new sluice and pump station. We are now bringing in a pump—already paid for — and we expect those pumps to be here soon for installation at Bengal,cheap nfl jerseys, that will now ease the pressure from the Number 43 Drainage Canal.”The National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), he stated, will start the expansion of the Johanna Canal, going on to the Bengal Sluice on the Corentyne. Additionally, new pumps are being placed at Crabwood Creek, Rose Hall Town, and in Canje.
