– GRDB says too early to pronounce on decreaseWhile there has been a slight increase in rice prices, farmers have adopted a wait and see attitude, with options to expand their crops limited. In fact, they have planted thousands of acres less than the 2016 first crop.GRPA General Secretary, Dharamkumar SeerajThis is according to the General Secretary of the Guyana Rice Producers’ Association (GRPA),Angel Di Maria Jersey, Dharamkumar Seeraj. According to Seeraj, the decrease in planting was evident in Region Two and elsewhere.“This season,Paul Kariya Ducks Throwback Jersey, in terms of payment and price for rice, is better than last season, but not that much better. Of course, nowhere near that $3000 per bag which farmers are accustomed to.”He pointed out that in Region Two, farmers had planted approximately half less than what they would normally plant in the region. Seeraj stated that when one compiles the reduced acreages across the country it comes up to 57,Wholesale Baseball Jerseys 2018,000 acres, which he described as a significant amount.“But a number of farmers I spoke with basically have a wait and see attitude. They are not expanding and they cannot expand because the prices are not good. And some of the incentives that would lessen the burden of a sector that is coming under price pressure have been removed.”Giving some examples,Brett Favre Falcons Jersey, he referenced the Value Added Tax (VAT) exemption on capital equipment and accessories like tractors, plows, milling equipment. He stated that whatever are the costs of those items now, the farmers have deal with the 16 percent VAT. In addition, he added that milling fees have gone up.“So that really has become burdensome and you find that people are not recapitalizing,NFL Shop Gear,” Seeraj related. “A few days ago I had a conversation with major suppliers of farm equipment to the sector,Angelo Henriquez Chile Jersey, both rice and sugar. And he said that if not for gold he would have been out of business. So there is this additional burden on them.”GRDB General Secretary, Nizam HassanUnfairAccording to the General Manager of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), Nizam Hassan, statements to the effect that farmers are planting significantly less than the previous crop would be unfair and premature, as harvesting is still ongoing in some areas.Acknowledging that sowing has restarted at a small level, He made it clear that in some cases farmers planted late and are now harvesting, after which they would replant. Hassan emphasized that it was thus too early to pronounce definitively on a reduction in replanting for the current crop.He estimated that 27 percent more of the first crop remained to be harvested. However, Hassan pointed out that 84 percent of the targeted crop, 90,000 hectacres, was sown. He explained that this amounted to approximately 77,000 hectacres.Back in February, Hassan had reported that just about 84 percent of the spring crop that was targeted had been sown and that this demonstrated the resilience of the farmers and all other support servicesHe had stated that according to the data provided, Regions Three and Five were the most affected by the dry weather conditions known as El Nino.