Dear Editor,
I sold my paddy on May 5, 2010, to a rice miller (name supplied) in Region 2. He gave me a cheque dated August 18, 2010 for the amount $941,020.00 and gave other farmers cheques also with the same date as mine to encash at GBTI. When I went to the bank to encash it, the miller had no money in his account. That miller milled our farmers’ paddy and exported our rice and got full payment for it, so he has the money he owes us in his possession.
At present the miller’s family is running his business while he is in hiding. On August 30, 2010, I reported the matter at the GRDB branch office at Anna Regina. The officers there told me to call back via telephone before 4 pm the said day. When I called at 4, the officer who answered told me that “they” are working to get a cell phone number. On August 31 when I enquired again, I was told to call back again. That’s how the GRDB office has me.
I got to understand that the miller will buy paddy this coming crop and pay farmers off in cash – no doubt with our money.
I am therefore calling on Agriculture Minister Mr Robert Persaud to investigate our matter to see if that miller has a licence to operate a mill in Region 2. If so, we are calling on the Minister to withdraw his licence or else we cannot get our money from him.
He started to operate his rice mill in October, 2009, yet in March 2010 he doesn’t have money to pay us for the produce he purchased? What is really happening to farmers? This must change and farmers must be paid cash for paddy, otherwise we who produce the food should down tools. Let us cooperate, unite and get together. Let the millers import paddy from outside the country to keep their mills.
We, the farmers are demanding that the millers agree to sign a legal document stating that when they buy our paddy they have to pay us in full right away. Only then would our paddy business be able to stand.
The rice millers’ businesses stand on solid foundations. I am calling on farmers let us all wake up from our sleep and stand up and fight for our rights and defend ourselves now from the assault by these millers, or else we will be continuing to work just to maintain the millers, their families and their businesses. I am calling on farmers to let us get into action and find a solution for our paddy business, so that it can run smoothly and bear fruit, and our families can inherit and enjoy the labour that we sweated for.
This is not against the government, it is against those rice millers who believe that they can crush the small farmers. We have to sit and wait for over five months for our money; who will give our families food?
Yours faithfully,
Indar Bacchus
