Options being considered for clearing Abary Creek mouth
Cash crop, rice and livestock farmers from Region Five again benefited from assistance from the agriculture ministry at a distribution exercise hosted on Monday.
According to a Government Information Agency (GINA) press release Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud met with farmers at the Bush Lot Secondary School where the exercise was held. Farmers received seeds and vouchers that would be redeemed for seed paddy at the Burma Rice Research Station and for fertiliser.
Farmers who lost 100 acres under rice cultivation were entitled to 30 bags of seed paddy, while those who lost 200 and 400 acres were entitled to 40 and 60 bags of seed paddy respectively. The subsidy on the fertiliser is equivalent to 53% of the cost of one bag of fertiliser which can now be obtained at a price of $4,000, the release said. Earlier they had received rice bran, vouchers for chicks and ducklings and permits to collect molasses from the Blairmont estate free of cost.
Additionally, bids for the three options of clearing the mouth of the Abary River: agitating the accumulated material, excavating and depositing it on the river banks and excavating the material and moving it away were received. The bids ranged from $11.6M to $107M. According to GINA suggestions that had been made to improve the drainage and irrigation infrastructure at a previous meeting at Onverwagt were submitted to an engineer to establish their feasibility.
The engineer had reportedly submitted a report to the minister which will be given to farmers for their input before any options are considered.
Huge, Huge aid for these folks in Bush lot, I hope they are grateful to the good minister for his assistance.
I hope they can find it in their hearts to forgive him and Mr. President for ignoring their pleas to dredge the MMA River mouths since last year. These people must remember that this President and Minster Persaud are working tirelessly to help them.
The good minister and Mr. President also regrets that they could not put up any of these people at Buddys International hotel even though the government used state funds to pay for the Elephant, sorry i meant hotel.
Region five starts from Ithaca and Ithaca is also included in the MMA project. Region five need a Council on Agricultural Development to benifit all the people.
It was the MMA project that would of feed the Caribbbean with rice. cheese, milk, and vegitable with blairmont being the port for agriculture products departure to the Caribbean.
This Government continue to cherry pick projects and punish some people. The people of Blairmont all they have is a dying Blairmont estate and nothing more. The estate has taken the everything out of the people in this sugar belt area leaving with nothing but to migrate or await remittance.
As the Global finacial system hit them people in Blairmont and other areas the Minister quietly shares seeds next door as election draws near.
Mista Administrator, i am not sure weather i am stupid or something but please tell me if i am, just now i was looking for the link to see the other news that was published yesterday and i cannot find it, you see you guys are changing this website too much man, it been good good how it was before when you first started, please tell me whats going on!!
WHY IF YOU LOST ‘Farmers who lost 100 acres under rice cultivation were entitled to 30 bags of seed paddy, while those who lost 200 and 400 acres were entitled to 40 and 60 bags of seed paddy respectively’ Y CANT IT BE 60 BAGS FOR LOST OF 200 ACRES & 120 BAGS FOR LOST OF 400 ACRES? WHERE IS THE MATHS IN THIS?????? CANT THE GOVT SEE THAT PPL WHO LOST 200 ACRES WILL PUT 100 LOST ACRES IN TEH SPOUSE OR PARENTS NAME JUST TO GET 30 -30 BAGS EACH… SAME WILL GO FOR THOSE WHO LOST 400 ACRES… THEY WILL PUT IT IN 4 PPL NAMES TO GET 120 BAGS…
The desilting and clearing of the Abary Creek, is long overdue and it is the minister and the administration, which should be thanking the farmers and people in this area for their patience and tolerance, in the face of hardships and suffering due to constant floodings, as a result of the government’s negligence and mismanagement.
The undone phases, of The MMA drainage and irrigation project, needs to be addressed by the administration in a timely manner, to avert further hardships, especially, by poor farmers.
However, there seems to be some ‘light at the end of the tunnel’, with the imput of farmers and residents of the area, being allowed to participate in finding a solution to the problem.
This is the manner, issues and problems affecting communities should be dealth with, and the government should be given credit for involving local residents, in the process of arriving at solutions, with the neccessary help also of proffessionals.
It is a good development and should be welcomed!