Farmers in the Mahaica Creek area are enjoying the current dry weather with occasional showers although it may require topping up the water conservancy, but some are a bit disturbed by pests and plant diseases which are affecting their crops.
Meanwhile, two excavators provided by the government have been working with farmers free of charge for two days on lifting the level of their land.
The authorities are also likely to begin pumping water from the creek into the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC) shortly to increase the level of water there. The full supply level of the conservancy is 57.5 Georgetown Datum.
Grass Hook farmer Sugrim Sarju related that it is the farmer who decides how high the earthen floodwalls should go. According to reports, farmers in the Little Biaboo and Big Biaboo villages of the Mahaica Creek are thankful for the help given to them so far.
However, the investment required for cultivation has been presenting some challenges for the farmers. For instance cash crop farmer Deodat Doodnauth working on his father-in-law’s plot at Biaboo indicated that it can be difficult to plant in the dry weather when attempting to grow a crop from the seedling stage.
“Expense and time,” he said is the difference between starting a new crop and the upkeep of growing plants since fertilizer and other pesticides prices start around $5,000 per bag. He was also using a gasoline pump to access water for his plants.
Farmers explained that rain helps to promote certain plant diseases or conditions such as fungus and it works against others. Naresh Harripaul noted that the pests attacking his 10,000 roots of pepper and passion fruit plants are drying them up. It seems the problem has been affecting several of his fellow farmers who have been trying a variety of pesticides to fight the bugs.
Another disease affecting the plants in the area, Harripaul said, is ‘red root’ that farmer Kayume Mohamed suggested can be easily avoided by waiting a few days after preparing one’s land to allow the soil to dry before planting.
Both Mohamed and Deochand Itwaru related that for them things have been flowing smoothly with the favourable weather consisting of sunshine and intermittent showers so their crops were blooming as they should.
