A rice farmer of Number 30 Village, West Coast Berbice is alleging that paddy is being stolen at Mahaica, Mahaicony, Abary-Agricultural Development Authority (MMA-ADA) cleaning facility and nothing is being done about it although officials are aware of the situation.
Stabroek News attempted to contact the general manager of MMA-ADA,
Aubrey Charles but he was unavailable for comment. Another senior official, who this newspaper had spoken to on one occasion, said she was unaware of the issue.
Kennard Persid told Stabroek News that he got a “tip off” that some of the workers would steal a few bags of paddy from farmers and he decided to investigate. He took his paddy to the facility and found that the amount returned to him was significantly lower.
According to Persid, it was not the first time that he took his paddy to the facility and he had suspected that there was dishonesty about the amount that was returned to him.
He pointed out that he took 47,400 pounds of paddy with a moisture content of 15 per cent. After the drying process, the moisture dropped to 13.2 percent. The man said he was satisfied with reduction of the moisture but not with the weight.
He also received 4,000 pounds of “waste paddy” and found that his paddy was still short by 2,000 pounds or about 16 bags. He said information of theft substantiated his suspicions.
He reported the matter to the Rice Producers’ Association (RPA) and they in turn informed officials from the MMA/ADA and a large-scale rice farmer was put to investigate. He said he contacted the farmer, a close acquaintance with MMA-ADA officials, and was told that “is not so much, is about seven to eight bags of paddy short.”
The farmer, he related, has indirectly admitted that some of the paddy was stolen. The farmer promised to get back to him but he is still waiting, he added.
Persid is afraid nothing would come out of the investigation because “nobody is doing anything about it… I am not getting any justice.”
He felt that “if the investigation was done properly, they would have at least been able to catch them [workers] with the paddy.”
The farmer was disappointed that officials from MMA-ADA and the RPA have promised “to get back to me but I did not hear anything from them again. I tired calling them…”
He said he missed paddy in the past and mentioned it but “nothing din come out of it. But this time I decided to weigh the paddy and I was able to detect how much was short.”
Meanwhile, other farmers have complained of losing their paddy but they are “afraid to come forward because of victimisation.”
