The circumstances in which the farmers who form the membership of the Mocha/Arcadia Multipurpose Cooperative Society find themselves now leave them with no option than to make hay while the sun shines. It is, to say the least, a precarious existence that has affected the farming community there to the extent that their popular Mocha Market Day, an event that attracts visitors from patrons residing considerable distances from the location of the event. That is the extent of the popularity of the event. The most recent Market Day held on Sunday February 19, was, according to Raeburn Jones, the Chairman of the Cooperative Society that provides the service, “a success.” It was a measured, perhaps even ‘tongue in cheek’ pronouncement which sought, unmistakably, to make the point that it had been a matter of making the best of a bad situation.
His ‘report card’ on the event, he said, took account of the fact that the farmers, members of the Cooperative, had only just begun to return to their farms from the latest bout of heavy rainfall and flooding, much of which has been the result of protracted and seemingly insurmountable drainage and irrigation challenges. If the farmers are soldiering on, determined to hold on to their livelihoods and to the attention which their usually well-supported Market Day has brought them, they have, Jones told the Stabroek Business, become more than a trifle exasperated. The reason?
The long-standing drainage and irrigation challenges affecting the farmlands and which the Ministry of Agriculture had said had been rectified just a few months earlier, had resurfaced.
Jones said the contractors from the Ministry of Housing and Water had again blocked the canals, presumably there appears to be no sense of urgency associated with what would have to be their eventual unblocking. Jones says that he believes that part of the problem associated with the flooding had to do with a lack of consultation/coordination between the Ministry of Housing and Water and the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority before critical work is undertaken. As things stand, Jones told the Stabroek Business earlier this week, the recurring challenge that frequently denies farmers’ access to their farms represents a serious threat to both the popular Sunday Market and to the Cooperative Society as a whole. It had only been a few years earlier when the drainage canals had been flowing freely
Jones recalled a few years ago when all the canals were flowing freely and the farmers were enjoying unhindered access to the lands. “These days,” he says, “it take weeks for the lands to drain,” a circumstance which, he says, results in “the destruction of crops and livestock, affects harvesting and delays the replanting of crops.” He points out that the destruction of crops has a knock-on effect on the livelihoods of Agro Processors. Joes says that “these days” agro-processors face difficulties acquiring fruit and vegetables at reasonable prices, a circumstance that impacts negatively on the viability of their businesses. Some Agro Processors, he says, are now compelled to acquire fruit and vegetables for their businesses at municipal markets at higher prices.
That said, Raeburn Jones told the Stabroek Business that the people who hold the Market Day event are still some distance away from being ready to quit. “They are determined to soldier on,” he says. Some of them, he told the Stabroek Business are already giving consideration to creating significantly “raised” beds” and Shade Houses.
Despite what members of the Cooperative says is what appears be an official indifference to the challenges facing the farming community, Jones says that the Cooperative continues to engage government entities. He disclosed that farmers who are members of the Cooperative have secured assistance from the National Agricultural Research & Extension Institute [NAREI] in pursuit of the treatment of the Black Sigatoka disease affecting their plantain and banana crops. Farmers, he says, also benefit from the support they receive from the state agency in honing their budding and grafting skills, important horticultural skills in an agricultural society. Farmers, Jones says, have also benefitted from training in swine management provided by the Guyana Livestock Development Association [GLDA]. Mocha farmers have also benefitted from in key management aspects of the agricultural sector including managing costs of production. The state-run Agriculture Sector Development Unit (ASDU) has also provided training for the farmers.
