The Rice Producers Association (RPA) would be very appreciative if reporters would make an effort to verify facts before publication of articles relating to the rice industry, especially when reference is being made to the RPA.

Editorials even more so, since the column is the yardstick by which the credibility of the publication is measured; and I make special mention of the Kaieteur News editorial of Sunday 4th May 2008, which attempted to address the issue of high prices.

I reiterate that the author of the editorial attempted to address the issue, but I venture to say that this was a failed attempt because the information and skewed analysis contained therein did not in any way reflect empirical data, which are easily accessible, as are personnel in the rice industry, including RPA executives.

While not disputing the importance of maintaining the affordability of this vital staple to the local consuming public, which the Government is addressing, recognition has to be given to the fact that external dynamics and imperatives, which severely impacted the cost of inputs that sustain the industry, were the primary contributory factors that drove the cost of rice to escalate appreciably.

Why only Guyana? Newscom reports that rice prices in some of the most prolific rice-growing areas in the world have surged to record heights. According to the publication , Asian rice prices have almost trebled this year and the prices from the Chicago Board of Trade have risen to more than 80 percent.

The Kaieteur News editorial goes on to state that authorities claim that rice supplies have dwindled in the local food chain. But the credibility factor of this editorial comes into question here, because easily available statistics indicate otherwise; so the editors need to identify the authorities from which they obtained this entirely erroneous information.

Rice production has increased dramatically and lands that had been abandoned for decades are being reclaimed and cultivated. Also the Government is making available large tracts of land for farming, so productivity is increasing rather than declining, as it is stated in the editorial, which posits that “there is a move that would see land being used for food being used to cultivate grains for bio-fuel.”

The Government’s “Grow More Food” campaign debunks this contention, and the RPA is fully supportive of and involved in this initiative. One is forced to speculate that there is a sinister agenda behind the several negative inferences and, outright misrepresentation of facts in the editorial, especially since the authorities have been consistent in categorically refuting these very allegations. There seems to be, in Shakespearean terminology, “mischief afoot”.

The contentious allegation that the appreciation in prices has not benefited the farmers in any way, and that millers are the only stakeholders who are benefitting, is entirely fallacious, because a cursory study would indicate that paddy prices have spiraled from a best price of $2,800 in 2007 to between $4,500 - $5,700 – and climbing, in 2008.

Smuggling is a criminal activity and anyone with information regarding this crime is duty-bound, by law, to report such breaches to the proper authorities, so instead of making wild assumptions, then editorializing on the analyses created there from, reporters should provide instances of proof or else they degrade the noble profession of journalism, which should be pursued by basing stories on facts and not wild speculations.

One remembers that when Stabroek News broke the story on thallium poisoning it rocked the nation because they backed it with proof that generated changes within the system. Unsubstantiated allegations, with vague references to phantom “authorities”, and with scant or no basis of facts, only serve to make suspect the credibility of the publication and, consequently, its authors.

Therefore, unless the author of the editorial can prove that there is smuggling of rice across our borders which could contribute to shortage on the local market, then one can only surmise that there is a mischievous agenda behind this, as well as the contention that the RPA has said nothing about spiraling prices of the staple.

The RPA has spoken ad nauseum on the various ramifications of this phenomenon at the relevant fora. We have also addressed it in our quarterly publication, the Farmer, complimentary copies of which were made available to the Kaieteur News.

Our organisation has made representation at the highest level for relief for our farmers, as a result of which several government interventions were made, which resulted in tax and other relief measures being accorded the sector. These are well-documented, even in the media.

Our executives and extension officers work indefatigably with individual farmers, as well as the farming community as a collective, in educational and experimental initiatives in efforts to enhance the best practice factors in cultivation and production of rice so as to sustain the imperative viability of this very vital sector in the nation’s economy.

Our track record in promoting, protecting, and advancing the interests of rice producers can bear honest scrutiny and we invite media operatives to instead of speculating, seek the valid information that we can readily, and willingly, provide.

Finally, and importantly, the editorial stated, as a contentious issue, that there is talk that rice came to British Guiana by African slaves, which is clearly a reference made to an article in the Farmer magazine in which former RPA General-Secretary, Mr. Pariag Sukhai, wrote that rice was first grown by runaway slaves, who cultivated rice with paddy that had been imported by the plantation owners from the Carolinas, which they hulled in the sugar factories in order to feed their slaves.

While we agree with the editorial that extensive rice cultivation was undertaken by the East Indian immigrants, The Farmer is highly-objective and seeks to be fair and analytical with its editorial contents, and we would not deny our history. Unlike many other publications, we aspire at all times to be factually correct, in every context.

DHARAMKUMAR SEERAJ

General-Secretary – RPA.