Dear Editor,
Beni Sankar in SN September 19, captured the current dilemma of rice farmers candidly in his clear-cut review of the cost of production and marketing problems farmers are facing today (‘Better marketing strategies need to be adopted in the rice industry’). My letter ‘No one has the figures for the losses suffered by farmers’ refers (SN, August 26). What is quite noticeable is the rice specialist did not go into the climate change effects on rice production, only the current marketing woes.
Rice farming will meet with greater woes and needs great support if the world is to be fed in the near and distant future. Climate change will further aggravate the situation with rice production. Not only farmers but all of us will be seriously affected by climate change.
SN August 27, 2009 carried a very crucial article, ‘History can no longer guide farmers, investors – UN’ which did not engender any comment as far as I remember. It reminds me that people are still not really giving heed to the calls of the modern day ‘prophets’ in our midst. I still wonder how many are really serious about the pending tragedy of global warming/climate change. Worst of all people do not care about farming and farmers historically. But the time is coming when they would hold our very lives in their hands.
In that August 27 issue Reuters reported: “Michel Jarraud, director-general of the World Meteorological Organization, said that water and temperature projections have become more valuable than the historical weather data that long governed strategy in agriculture, hydro-electric power, solar technology and other fields.”
We can spell out for the readers drainage and irrigation also. It does appear that only when the big guns boom that people really know there is a war going on. Such is the case when Al Gore put out his movie version of the climate change crisis facing the human race. He was a big gun and what a boom he discharged.
Now there is feverish emphasis on food production in Caricom as belaboured by Minister Robert Persaud at the 32nd Council on Trade and Development in Georgetown recently. I have grappled with this impending food crisis since the 1980s while at Ministry of Trade, and continued when seconded to the Civil Defence Commission.
It is high time that all of us understand with the drive for alternative fuels (bio-fuels) a shortfall in food would result in the diverting of corn and other farm produce to the production of bio-fuels. With this rice would be the mainstay of food production. However, farmers still are virtually operating under the most stressful conditions including production costs and climate change.
From December 7-18, 2009, a host of experts and heads of government will converge on Copenhagen to come up with doable strategies to curtail carbon emissions, the chief factor involved in global warming.
In this global event little Guyana’s voice will be heard booming across the international community. President Jagdeo must be commended for championing the cause of the South American nations with his LCDS proposals and for seeking compensation for the preservation of the pristine Amazonian rainforest – a major deterrent to carbon build-up. The lackadaisical Caricom has closed ranks behind President Jagdeo at this week’s meeting on the LCDS.
Reuters further noted, “In the farming sector, the Frenchman suggested that guidance passed down through generations about how to prepare and manage crops was becoming less relevant because of changing patterns of heat, humidity and water access around the world.” I could say “I told you so.” More than two-and-a-half decades ago in 1983, I persuaded Mr Chander Persaud to develop a research paper on the effects of unseasonal weather patterns on the rice industry.
We did grapple with the vagaries of the weather patterns on the rice industry. We were on the ball with unseasonal weather patterns since then. I must salute Mr Persaud, wherever he is for his astute first analysis which uncovered the $10M per year losses to farmers.
When I wrote the piece that no one had the figures for losses suffered by farmers, I did capture the sentiments shared by Jarraud. I went back as far as 1983 to expose the losses suffered by farmers (as delineated by Mr Chander Persaud). Did anyone show an interest in the farmers of over 26 years ago, or before or after then? You can bet they will be forced to sooner rather than later.
You may also recall my candid criticisms of and objection to the expansion of the MMA/ADA in the light of the vagaries of climate change. Men from MMA were calling me names then. But I am not daunted by the sceptics. I kept good company to know better than the critics.
There will be a Disaster Management Conference in Sweden October 2009 which I hope to attend. Climate change will dominate the proceedings. A smaller number of specialist practitioners would brainstorm the pressing issues. Many a times at smaller forums such as these we get information and solutions long before the big guns boom.
Yours faithfully,
Seopaul Singh
