Dear Editor,
Government is reported to be distributing 350 ten-acre plots in the Pomeroon River for the growing of non-traditional crops as part of its Grow More/Diversification programmes (‘4,500 acres opened to flood-weary Essequibo farmers,’ SN, August 26). Flooding was identified as a major problem, and supposedly the new farms will be located on higher ground that can be better protected.
Unfortunately, the root cause of the problem farmers face in the Pomeroon has gone undetected.
Flooding is a problem during periods of heavier-than-normal seasonal rainfalls but can be adequately addressed with improvements in dam and drainage infrastructure.
The government, several years ago, provided the area with two excavators for the purpose of helping farmers overcome this significant deficiency. No one appears to know where the excavators are, the process for engaging their use, how they were used to date, and who benefited from their use. It just seems like another example of good intentions defeated by poor administration.
The problem is the average farmer cannot afford the required investment because the prices paid to farmers for the non-traditional crops grown in the Pomeroon (plantains, bananas, eddoes, pumpkins, cassava, etc) are too low and represent a small percentage of their retail prices (about 25%). Farmers, who take all the risks associated with farming from pests and weather, get the lowest contribution from the distribution of their production.
This is so because they have no organized power to negotiate better prices and deals involving perishable products. Accordingly, farmers remain poor and without access to resources to improve their drainage infrastructure.
The solution is for the government to establish a clearing centre/marketing facility at Charity where sellers (farmers) and buyers (distributors) interact. The facility, which could incorporate the packaging plant, would pay farmers a fair price for their products (estimated to be about 50% of the retail price) which could then be resold both locally and internationally.
In so doing, farmers would improve their standard of living, resist the draw of the mines, and have capital to inject into their farms.
Unless the Pomeroon farmers improve their incomes, farms, including the new proposed plots, would remain at the mercy of flooding from heavy rainfall and thus defeat the administration’s objective to increase output.
Yours faithfully,
Louis Holder
