A Number Seven Village, West Berbice farmer turned up at his tomato farm recently only to find all of his crops destroyed.
He has estimated some $750,000 in losses. Mark Ramdass related that he left his farm in the usual good condition last Thursday and returned the next day, “and I see my farm ‘sprayed down’”. All of his crops were killed out after a person or persons sprayed Gramoxone on them. He made a report at the Fort Wellington police station.
Ramdass noted that the following day, his son visited the farm and checked to see what had had happened “and when he checked the farm, he found some leakage from a spray can that sprayed the farm down…leaking to a house straight in this village here”.
He said the chemical’s trail led to a resident’s house, a resident with whom he and his wife had previous arguments. His suspicion therefore led him to believe that the act might have been committed by the individual.
“A lot of money I invested in my farm, and a lot of labour and I have a lot of losses there”. He said police visited the farm and took photographs.
It is the first time something like this has taken place on his farm and he related that “me and nobody around here get wrong…normally I does live nice with everybody, but my wife and these people who sprayed my farm down don’t get along too well; they always in ups and downs”.
The farmer said that he plants 1,800 roots of tomatoes and (an average of) 1,200 have been killed out and damaged, “just the middle left, just about 600 roots must have been left. “It’s really hard because I borrowed money from the bank to maintain this farm and for somebody to destroy me like this and I ain’t get satisfaction, I need the law and police to assist in this matter and see what best they can do for me”.
“Those trees [that were killed off] can’t come back at all…all that were sprayed dead…it cannot be fair for a poor man like me for somebody to come and destroy my farm and then I got proof…good evidence leading towards this lady’s house— straight to her house and then she denied that her son know to spray”. You don’t have to go to school to spray…anybody can pick up a spray can and spray”.
“This is my dependence…I have three children going high school and I am trying hard to make a daily bread”, he related. He said that the individual or individuals who may have sabotaged his tomato farm would not have needed a lot of time to commit the act, “just about 10-15 minutes, because you can walk as fast as possible and walk around and come back around…and gramoxone is a ‘hot’ drugs, that soon after you spray it so, 2-3 hours later, everything dries up—everything— it’s not a drug that takes 2-3 weeks to act, it works overnight and then the tomato trees are soft and they are net- veined—they are easier to kill with ‘hot’ drugs”.
