By Nicosia Smith
Guyana has seen several high-profile farming ventures over the years, but some haven’t stood the test of time, and the challenges faced in the past are still present, as start-up farmers and established ones battle to stay in business.
One company had changed the face of agriculture in the intermediate savannahs for a while by successfully growing several non-traditional crops, despite being told it could not be done.
GC Mekdeci & Company Ltd, owned by Gerard Mekdeci, had confounded the sceptics by proving that broccoli, cauliflower, butternut squash, cantaloupes, honeydew melons, sweet-corn, zucchini and even strawberries could not only grow commercially in Guyana but in the tricky environment of the savannahs. Mekdeci did it on his Kaikotin Farm.
In late 2000, he began preparing the land for what was to be Kaikotin Farm and the necessary infrastructure was put in place to commence trial plots of broccoli, lettuce and cauliflower in 2001.
The total capital expenditure as of April 2004 at Kaikotin was US$200,000 ($40 million) with profits per acre ranging from 15% to 30%.
But after four years, Mekdeci had to call it quits, as fuel and transportation cost to the savannahs proved to be too much for this pioneering farmer.
He had told Stabroek Business in an April 30, 2004 article that to expand from his 14 hectares he needed a “high clearance sprayer” which cost at the time US$30,000. This is a tractor so tall that it drives over the heads of the corn plants to spray insecticide on the plants. Taking a loan from the bank, he had said, was not an option since “the lending rate is very painful.” He never got to expand his farm.
Four years on, farmers across the country are still faced with much of the same problems as this newspaper learnt.
Essequibo Coast rice farmer Deonarine, although pleased with the current rice prices, refuses to increase his production fearing it would not be profitable.
Deonarine told Stabroek News that the inputs for rice — fertilizer, insecticides, fuel and spare parts — were very expensive. The 16% Value Added Tax (VAT) was removed from certain agricultural spares and several inputs do not attract the tax. The excise taxes on fuel have also been steadily reduced. Nevertheless, the fuel cost remains the highest at over $900 per gallon. The cost for fertilizers used in rice production ranges from $7,000 to $10,000 per bag. “If fertilizer and fuel keep rising is [back to] square one,” argued this rice farmer. “You can’t increase much because you will be [back to] square one.”
This farmer has 500 acres under cultivation. The cost for one bag of A, B or C grade paddy is $5,500 per bag, more than double the price in December.
This farmer also said that he does not have access to land to plant other crops.
Bath Settlement, West Coast Berbice, household eschallot farmer Rohanre Dukharan, lamented that one of her major problems is accessing water for her farm. When the rain-water supply is depleted, this farmer uses potable water, which is not always available.
English tomatoes are a lucrative crop to grow, but the “cost [is] very expensive,” Dukharan said. She said one packet of English tomato seeds cost $15,000 and not all of the seeds germinate; there are 1,000 seeds in the packet. This newspaper was also told that sometimes Creole tomato seeds are sold for English tomatoes.
In addition, the insecticides for the tomato plants are “very expensive,” she said.
According to Dukharan her family has not yet begun accessing seeds from the government, through its grow more food campaign, even though government officials had inquired from the family what other crops it could grow.
Her husband, Pularam Dukharan, told Stabroek News that it cost $250,000 over a six-months period to grow one packet of English tomatoes, from “nursery come up.” In addition, every day the garden needs tending for at least two to three hours. Pularam admitted that planting tomatoes “get money” but, the “farmers are not making the money,” it is the middlemen that are profiting, while “you ah punish.”
He would like buyers to go to farmers and buy directly. Pularam explained that his farming community, “needs more buyers” and he called for buyers from outside the community to buy their produce. In the past, he noted that even the outside buyers would change their buying prices, after coming in contact with community buyers.
This family reaps 5,000 pounds of eschallot from its 40 beds every seven weeks, but when shallot price is low; the entire crop can be sold for as little as $2,000. The current wholesale price for one pound of shallot is $60, but at the municipal markets, one pound of shallot is sold for as high as $200 per pound, from its current market price of $120.
Eric Warden, of the unregistered four-member group Feba Agriculture Enterprise, began farming behind South Amelia’s Ward in Linden, last November and it is a struggle to keep the farm afloat because of limited financial resources.
“At least one of the main focuses is to feed the people them… and bring down the cost of living,” says Warden, of his group’s ambition.
Agriculture he noted was a feasible option but admitted that it must be done on a large scale to be profitable. Currently, the group cultivates peppers and pumpkins on 1.2 acres, as a trial run, but hopes to move up to 20 or 30 acres in the future.
As it stands, the current cultivated land will provide seeds to support the group, when it moves from its trial stage, since according to Warden, the seeds sold on the market at times do not germinate.
The group members pool their own resources into the farm, and receive no assistance from any organization nor have they sought any assistance, at the governmental level.
They are, however, hoping to access a tractor, plough, power saw, pump and one blower and spray can before they can begin large-scale cultivation. The trial period is expected to last until the end of this year and after this period the group is expected to move its cultivation to 10-12 acres. Since the group members use mainly their own resources, Warden explained that they would want to rent the equipment they will need, but have access to technical expertise from government agencies. In addition, he is also advocating for a hymac to dig a small canal, at the creek located near the farm, to enable them to pump water to the farm. The cost to begin cultivating the 12 acres, including staff for maintenance was put at $6.2 million.
His hope for Linden is that the community will have a meat and vegetable market that retails and wholesales food produced in the region.
