Dear Editor,
Recent remarks by me on the programme, ‘Countdown’, first aired online on Sunday, September 21, 2025, seem to have generated a lot of interest and commentary – some by the usual suspects (for example, Sasenarine Singh, Ambassador to Belgium and The Netherlands). I had taken a decision not to respond especially since a lot of what was being said was ill-informed, most likely the consequence of the commentators not taking the time to listen to the original programme; instead, they relied on what was carried as ‘news’ in various media. When, however, the government decided to unleash the might of its propaganda media in its efforts at pushback, it is time to get off the couch. Permit me, therefore, to respond to Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha, ‘Jordan’s remarks on rice farmers ‘’reckless” says Mustapha’ (Stabroek News, October 1, 2025). A similar article also appeared in Kaieteur News, Oct 01, 2025, under the caption, ‘Govt. will not abandon rice farmers’.
So what is the source of this angst displayed by Mustapha? According to the SN article, he is peeved at my supposed suggestion that “smaller farmers should exit rice production.” [His words]. But did he listen to what I actually said and the context within which it was said? I provide a summary of the discussion on this subject that I was able to extract from the original programme:
Rice farmers must be given information that there is a glut in the world market, that the price is formed by the interplay of market forces (demand and supply). Because a glut implies that supply far exceeds demand, prices would be depressed; hence, this is not an occasion to increase production. On the contrary, production should be scaled back temporarily, unless you are in a position like Brazil, Australia or Thailand, for example, where you can make use of large silos that can hold excess production for when prices improve. In addition to silos, excess rice production may be captured in the value-added chain, for example rice cakes, rice crispies, rice flour, rice porridge, and packaged rice.
I contended that if farmers are being asked to produce more when market conditions are unfavourable, then the government will always be on the backfoot. I then went on to enumerate a wide range of concessions that the government has already extended to rice farmers, including but not limited to: distribution of free fertiliser; duty free machinery and equipment, removal of the commission charged by the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) and the absorption of the loss income by the government; provision of direct cash transfer to rice farmers; rice farmers benefited, too, from the national cash grant distribution; government paid a cash subsidy directly to farmers to boost the price offered by private millers; and the provision of an insurance premium. Among the concessions that were not mentioned were: reduced drainage and irrigation rates; removal of ferry tolls for trucks transporting paddy; compensation for spoilage of paddy during waiting time for trucks to access milling facilities; and government engagement with commercial banks to ease the financial burdens of the rice farmers.
I concluded that there was not much left to give to the rice farmer, except if the government were to increase further the price subsidy. It is this that I regarded as a total misuse of taxpayers’ money, were it to be pursued by the government. This was said against the realization that the whole country was suffering from high cost of living that the government had done little to temper; yet, here we were having two behemoths, sugar and now rice, extracting substantial sums of money from treasury.
I repeated that it made little sense to ask rice farmers to produce more under current conditions. Further, if the outlook is for prices to remain depressed in the long term, and with no access to premium markets such as what obtained under PetroCaribe Arrangement, then the government must ‘level’ with farmers. In that regard, I offered that marginal farmers should be enabled to transition to other crops and productive ventures, while other farmers should be encouraged to improve their productivity.
While not a verbatim transcript, the above represents an accurate account of what I said on that programme. Against that background, what can be classified as “reckless” in that summary? Did I ask the government to abandon rice farmers? If Mustapha is referring to my reference to marginal farmers being assisted to transition to other crops, that can be considered to be neither reckless nor abandonment. On the contrary, it shows concern and consideration, offering an alternative means of livelihood and sustenance while relieving such farmers of the burdens of uncertainty of income and crippling debt. In this regard, I am in good company since none other than the Head of the Guyana Rice Producers Association, Lekha Rambrich, has advised rice farmers to scale back their investments in light of the challenging market conditions. And he was giving this advice more than a week after the airing of the programme.
Like a broken vinyl long playing (LP) record, Mustapha could not help invoking the bogeyman, APNU/AFC, the scapegoat for the PPP/C incompetent management of the economy generally and the rice sector in particular. According to SN’s article, Mustapha ‘sought to remind Jordan and the public of the Coalition government’s record on rice between 2015 and 2020, when rice farmers faced ‘blatant neglect’”. This propaganda must be exposed for what it is, for, in the absence of serious challenges by the Coalition’s Agriculture Minister, it has been said often enough as to be taken for a Goebbelian truth.
Very early in the life of the Coalition government (circa September 2015), a series of questions on rice was posed to me by then Opposition Member of Parliament Mohammed Irfaan Ali. This was no accident; it masked a hidden worry that the state in which the rice industry was left by his government could redound to their eternal shame and embarrassment. After all, on attaining office in May 2015, the Coalition found a PetroCaribe Account that was used to pay farmers and millers for rice shipped to Venezuela to be almost depleted; it had less than US$800,000, with little accounting as to how the over US$1 billion that the Fund had accumulated was used. That amount was insufficient to pay the US$4 million that was due to the farmers and millers since March 2015. The Coalition was left to find the funds to pay the outstanding balance to farmers and millers, which had risen to US$71.6 million by August 2015. Hence, prior to the presentation of the 2015 Budget, the new government had transferred about $5.5 billion to GRDB for payment to the rice farmers and millers. This was in addition to the $12 billion that also had to be found to bail out the insolvent sugar industry, another legacy failure of the PPP/C government.
Meanwhile, on the campaign trail for the 2015 elections, the PPP/C had intimated to farmers that they had secured a new rice contract with Venezuela, which was meant to replace the one that should have ended on November 30, 2015. (In the event, Venezuela abrogated the contract, resulting rice being left to rot on our wharves.). However, in a meeting with Mr Asdrubal Chavez, the Venezuelan Minister of Petroleum and Mining, on June 30, 2015 (the meeting included then Ambassador Geoffrey DaSilva and Debt Management Division Head Donna Yearwood), I was to learn that not only was Venezuela not renewing the rice contract but also that PDV Caribe (the oversight body of PDVSA) and PDVSA had communicated to Guyana’s Ambassador and the former Ministers of the previous Administration (Agriculture and Foreign Affairs) that Venezuela would have had enough rice from local production to meet the domestic demand. These uncertainties together with El Nino weather conditions saw rice production declining in 2016 but rebounding in 2017 to record a 12.7 percent increase, followed by increases in both 2018 and 2019. The Coalition government worked tirelessly to secure new markets in Africa, Central and South America and the Caribbean, including Cuba and Haiti, with measurable success. But more about this and related rice matters in another letter.
The Agriculture Minister’s feigned love for farmers does not appear to extend to other farmers. Immediately after assuming Office in 2020, his government set about destroying the Rural Agriculture Infrastructure Development (RAID) Project, which targeted the predominantly African villages of Mocha, Buxton, Beterverwagting/Triumph and Ithaca. This project, which was meant to bring the rich, arable lands in these villages back into cultivation, thereby increasing village, household and national incomes, was a follow on from a similar project that had targeted the predominantly Indian villages of Ruby, Laluni, Parika, Onverwagt. Today, one can only lament the waste of a project whose success would have seen 2500 acres of abandoned lands back into cultivation and the organization of 1200 farmers into cooperatives., thereby helping Caricom to reduce its food bill by 25% by 2025.
It’s time to hit the couch again!!
Yours truly,
Winston Jordan
Former Minister of Finance
