Dear Editor,
I attended a meeting called by Minister Robert Persaud at the Friendship Community High School, on Thursday at 10 am.
My first thought was: “Why was this meeting scheduled for this location at this time, to disrupt those “under performing children” in their efforts to gain something from a system that has failed them. I could not find a satisfactory answer, but decided that I shall attend, even though the invitation was not directed to me.
Since the aim was to address issues surrounding the clearing of the backlands with the farmers of the Buxton community I thought that I may learn from this expose how we in the Beterverwagting/Triumph community would be able to deal with officialdom on the possible issues which this move would be creating.
Of significance is that people of Buxton including religious leaders, grandmothers, grandfathers, parents, young men, young women, Rastafarians and baldheads, had common views on all the issues raised. Among the issues were:
1. Due to the negative light in which Buxton is being promoted by the political leadership, more and more Buxtonians are being forced to seek a livelihood from the backlands.
Buxtonians cannot secure jobs outside of Buxton easily.
2. The presence of the joint services in the area has made it unsafe for them to work their farms. This has created hardship on families over the last ten days or so.
3. What skills do the Police/Joint services have in arriving at an economic compensation package.
4. Why should they go to Eve Leary to discuss the compensation, the evidence of their loss is in Buxton.
5. How do we determine/accept a compensation package, when no one is clear as to how long they would not be able to access their farms.
6. There was a total rejection by the farmers of a suggestion that they be escorted to their farms by the joint services to harvest produce.
7. A rejection of Dr Luncheon’s offer of employment to them to maintain the required clear line of vision.
I did not get an opportunity to raise the issues that were on my mind, since the meeting ended prematurely. However I shall use this medium to raise the issues which I consider this knee jerk ‘security decision’ would to my mind bring about.
1. Cost
2. Quality of the exercise
3. Human Services Ministry’s involvement
Cost
This activity would be very costly, thus I want to know who is going to pay for this and how. Is it a budgetary item for 2008, or is it a knee jerk response to the Lusignan murders. If it is the latter, then many planned programmes for the coming year would have to be put on hold.
Offhand the area to be cleared, so that a line of vision is possible from Beterverwagting to Enmore, is about 20,000 acres. This includes all the lands between the townships and the East Demerara Conservancy. I was told that on the average the cost of clearing an acre of land is twenty thousand dollars ($20,000), thus to execute this four hundred million dollars ($400,000,000) is required.
Providing compensatory packages, first we must determine who shall benefit. In this case a whole host of people should qualify, among them shall be:
1. farmers, they will lose present crops and use of their land to produce in the immediate future. Their loss shall include germ plasma which may be difficult to replace.
2. farm workers
3. cane harvesters to achieve the stated aim according to Dr Luncheon, then the cane harvesters shall have reduced earnings for a while.
4. villagers who are afforded quality produce at convenient prices
5. Guysuco, loss of productive lands
6. middlemen, who ply the produce of these farmers and
7. Other indirect beneficiaries
I shall not attempt to put a figure to this but most definitely it can easily quadruple the cost of clearing. It is a serious matter that needs the inputs of professional evaluators not only on behalf of the government but to represent the affected persons. I shall even suggest that to avoid controversy an arbitrator from the Caribbean or international community should also be decided upon early.
Quality of the exercise
Members of our joint services are not schooled in the rudiments of plant ecology, thus would have little regard to the nutritional needs of plants. It is a known fact that mechanized land clearing can be very deleterious to future crop production. Thus by referring to quality of exercise, consideration is given to the potential of the cleared lands to retain their agricultural productive capacities. This is particularly so since the focus of those involved in the clearing is security, there is no guarantee that the (equipment) operators shall take into account the need to exercise care to ensure that the agronomic parameters of the disturbed soil are preserved. Poor quality land clearing can be a future deterrent to farmers in the affected communities, hence the effect of this present activity if not properly done can become catastrophic.
Ministry of Human
Services involvement
I was put off when the meeting started without the presence of personnel from the Ministry of Human Services. The complexities of this exercise are so far reaching in the communities that even if the Minister of Agriculture felt that the farmers are his farmers and he is their minister, he ought to have considered that these farmers who had never been visited by a Minister of Agriculture since 1992 are members of families and a community which has been under siege (living on the front line) for a number of years. In such a community there must be issues which naturally fall under the Ministry of Human Services. In the presentations made by farmers recurrent themes were:
1. Inadequacies in the homes of the farmers, especially those with small children and
2. Psychological terror persons have endured because of the activities of the joint services in the area.
In the light of what took place I cannot see the government going ahead without seriously re-considering its proposed actions. In the event there is no significant shift in the government’s intent, then villages need to seek help from whatever source to ensure that their cause is known by all and sundry. Thursday’s meeting should cause all to begin careful assessment of the effects this would have on the survival of the communities as socio-economic units.
My perception is that government’s intended action clearly would result in further degradation of those communities (Buxton and the others on the East Coast of Demerara), since bush clearing would not generate for them and eventually the nation the kind of revenues for enhancing lives.
I would however suggest to utilize part of the resources which I see being thrown into this venture in its present format to instead:
1. enhance the drainage and irrigation capacities in these communities
2. improve the access dams to these backlands
3. provide assistance to farmers to de-bush abandoned farmlands
4. provide quality agricultural extension services to promote agricultural production within these communities and encourage the involvement of NGOs, like in rice
5. institute on farm research/demonstration plots within the communities
6. assist in market research, and marketing of produce from these communities, and
7. provide within the schools of these communities facilities and personnel for the promotion of technical and vocational training.
Yours faithfully,
Elton McRae
