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By Brushell BlackmanAgriculture Minister, Robert Persaud, said that he will not be distributing cash to rice farmers in the wake of the current low rice price issue.Speaking to Kaieteur News while on a visit to drainage structures aback of Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo, the Minister said that other interventions are being contemplated.Persaud said that consultations between rice farmers countrywide have begun in an effort to decide the approach which will be taken for the use of the $400M awarded to the industry by President Bharrat Jagdeo.Some of the options that are being examined are; support for the cost of inputs in the industry, investing in infrastructure such as drying floors for farmers or support for the Rice Producers Association (RPA) with a production stabilisation fund.Explaining how the fund will operate, Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud says that once the cost of production is established, the government will start a fund that will be sustained by contributions from farmers and millers.He said that in the event that paddy falls below that production cost,Wholesale Jerseys, farmers will be able to access the fund by way of a voucher system and support for cost of input to the farmers. Persaud believes handing out cash ‘willy nilly’ will not solve the problem.The Minister believes that the consultation will take weeks.Interventions are important as they will increase competitiveness in the industry,Wholesale Jerseys, sustaining it in the medium and long term, he added.Although he is desirous of finalising the proposals quickly, he is unsure that they will be forthcoming for the upcoming crop. While dispelling the notion that there is a crisis in the rice industry,Cheap Wholesale NFL Jerseys, Persaud is imploring farmers not to panic.He said that government was successful in securing an additional market for what might be a surplus of rice from the current crop.Mervyn Williams,NFL Jerseys Authentic China, PNC/R Region Three representative, who was on the site visit, shares a different view for the use of the funds. According to him, there needs to be a holistic approach to the issue rather than mere injection of funds into the industry whenever a crisis arises.He said that the government needs to look beyond the dollar value and seek imaginative ways of arresting the problem. He believes the situation will continue to rear its head if a different approach is not adopted.He believes that the rice industry can benefit from better land preparation practices and better marketing of rice,cheap nfl jerseys online, thus removing the dependence on the traditional overseas ones.Additionally, Williams is calling on Government to re-examine the issue of the withdrawal of Guyana from the OCT (Other Countries and Territories) route.Williams said this route served the industry well and another such facility can only boost what is considered by many to be a crisis situation. He says it is disheartening for farmers to sell large quantities of rice and in the end get very little for their efforts in the field.The current situation arose after farmers were receiving $2000 for a bag of paddy.A prominent rice miller said that the genesis of the crisis has its roots in a US-owned company signing contracts with a few local millers and exporters at $355 US per 1000 kg cargo. He said this move is what contributed to millers being unable to pay more than $2000 per bag for paddy.He was at a loss as to who authorised the agreement,Cheap NFL Jerseys, according to him, the move meant millers were unable to bargain for higher prices when selling abroad and this filtered down to the farmers.He assured them that millers’ hands are tied “we don’t want a war between the millers and the farmers… we would have paid more if we could.”He said that he feels for the farmers since no one should operate at a loss. Farmers were calling on millers to pay at least $3500 per bag of paddy. They explained that they are operating at a loss.Farmers explained that it costs $74,000 to produce an acre of rice, noting that an acre yields thirty bags of paddy and farmers were losing $15,000 on an acre.The rice industry is second only to sugar as a major foreign exchange earner.