Almost 4,000 acres of rice have died so far, owing to El Nino and farmers siphoning off the limited water, and Mahaicony farmers are pleading with the MMA-ADA or other authorities to assist them in their time of dire need.
From Fairfield to Drill, Mahaicony yesterday, as far as the eye could see, the acres and acres of dried up rice looked like wastelands with dried up canals, filled with cracks, running parallel to them.
“You come and you can see fuh yuh self now. Everybody talking about how we getting water and this system working and that system working and look, nothing,” one of the farmers said, pointing at the completely dried creek and dead rice. “Is ya’ll only coming. Nobody else coming and everybody else talking. [General Manager of the MMA-ADA Aubrey] Charles talking about how we getting water but leh I tell you, is not one day he come down here. Not one day I see he come down here in the field to see what going on,” Susankar, a farmer said.
“Watch how many million dollars me lost deh. Is about eight million dollars me spend fuh plant me rice. When I gon get back that money?” Susankar questioned, pointing out that so far he has lost about 250 acres of rice. “It don’t even make sense anymore if we get water next week or even tomorrow cause all around this area dead. They dead and gone,” he added, stating that from the 300 acres he had planted he had estimated to
