{"id":187025,"date":"2026-09-08T02:02:52","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T05:02:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/?p=187025&preview=true&preview_id=187025"},"modified":"2026-10-10T08:51:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T11:51:28","slug":"concerns-for-farmers-due-to-drought-and-declining-purchasing-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/concerns-for-farmers-due-to-drought-and-declining-purchasing-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Concerns for farmers due to drought and declining purchasing power"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Farmers<\/a> are deeply concerned about the lack of rain and declining purchasing power. \u201cWith the drought, the price of vegetable varieties has increased, but sales are very minimal, because purchasing power has declined sharply,\u201d says farmer Vishnu Dhawtal from Damboentong, Saramacca.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

T<\/span>he farmer says that due to the drought, farmers have to invest more money in keeping their crops healthy. According to the Meteorological Service Suriname, this is an El Ni\u00f1o year. It will therefore be extra dry this year compared to previous years, when there was La Ni\u00f1a.<\/p>\n

In recent years, it even rained during the major dry season. Dhawtal had not taken this phenomenon into account and, as in previous years, had expected rain during the major dry season. He did not store any water and is therefore dependent on water in the creeks running alongside his agricultural plots. He risks losing his pepper and tomato crops and will have to take action quickly.<\/p>\n

In recent years, he had no difficulty making investments in his crops, because he was sure he would earn the money back. \u201cBut now the situation has changed.\u201d What makes the situation worse this year is the decline in purchasing power. Due to the drought, prices of the various vegetable varieties have risen further. As a result, sales have declined because purchasing power has fallen. \u201cCustomers stop, take a look and leave again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farmer Pradeep Sewpersad from Tijgerkreek, Saramacca, was also not prepared for this major dry season. \u201cIt has not rained here for almost a month and I am now in a tight spot.\u201d He has already lost his cucumber and watermelon crops, which are very sensitive. \u201cThe yield from both crops was very disappointing and it can be counted as a loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

He now plans to deepen his creeks, but for the time being he does not have the money to pay for an excavator. He too has doubts about putting more money into his pepper and tomato crops, because he strongly feels that, due to declining purchasing power<\/a>, he will not be able to make any profits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Farmers in Saramacca are facing severe drought and declining purchasing power, leading to higher vegetable prices but lower sales and financial losses for growers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":187028,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_29234516172805655_1309923202201307":"","facebook_29234516172805655_1158244960706604":"","facebook_29234516172805655_1093738170500407":"","facebook_29234516172805655_108923581283702":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16333],"tags":[23828,19898],"class_list":["post-187025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-el-nino-2","tag-landbouwers"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","pp_force_visibility":null,"pp_subpost_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_force_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_subpost_visibility":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187025"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194100,"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187025\/revisions\/194100"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}