Part 2
By Roland Fletcher
Previously we considered the economic plight of income earners in the Upper Berbice River communities and the opportunities availed by some pioneering and commercially oriented riverain farmers to legitimize their occupancy and farming operations in the Ebini and Wiruni / St Lust savannahs by securing long term leases to their savannah farm lands. This was facilitated through the GOG OAS Intermediate Savannahs Project (INSAP) in the early 2000. INSAP, or the Intermediate Savannahs Agricultural Development Project, had as its primary objective, the promotion of agri-business activity and investment of the Intermediate Savannahs through an organized land allocation and agricultural investment programme.
Originally, these individuals occupied and farmed land, which they had appropriated, in a random and unregulated manner in the hitherto unoccupied Wiruni/ St Lust western savannahs. At that time (somewhere in the 1980s) they were seeking more lucrative commercial farming opportunities than their traditional cut and burn system on the Berbice river-bank lands, and of course they were inspired by the vast acreages of grain crops which were then being produced by the State entities at Kimbia, Kibilibiri and Eberoabo. In their savannah farming pursuits they would walk or travel by tractor for 3 to 5 miles from their riverain homesteads to their savannah plots where huts or farm sheds provided temporary lodging for variable periods (depending on farm activity). Their savannah farming system was based on short-term cash crops (black eye pea, Minica 4 red pea, peanut and vegetables, which would offer quick returns without the need for substantial capital investment. Their socio-economic status and difficulty of access to farm credit precluded such investment in their farm enterprise portfolio, which would have supported desirable activities such as livestock rearing and fruit orchard establishment. These enterprises carry longer gestation periods (3 to 5 year maturity) and higher capitalization (for fencing, farm structures, and inputs). The absence of agribusiness and marketing facilities was also a major deterrent.
The Berbice River savannah farmers were therefore obliged to rely on short-term exploitative production systems (continuous row cropping with peanuts and peas, with no organized crop rotation system) which encouraged soil degradation and other undesirable cultural factors like incursion of pernicious weeds pests and diseases. Apart from the fact that their occupancy was illegal and un-regulated, it was recognized that these farmers lacked institutional support at the farm level. The Ministry of Agriculture, through INSAP regularized their occupancy, and provided them with long-term leases, as a first step toward the improvement of their agribusiness pursuits. It was reasoned that with legal rights, these developers would be motivated to make positive inputs into the development of their 10 to 16 ha (25 to 40 acre) plots, and would implement current recommended production systems which would integrate crops and livestock into a sustainable farming mix. In spite of successful lease acquisition, the requisite institutional support mechanisms (input procurement, credit access, market facilitation, transportation and sustained technological support) remained unavailable and/or inaccessible, because of the un-fulfilled assumption of planners and policy makers that the self-same Intermediate Savannahs Development project would have stimulated vibrant agricultural development activity by corporate developers on which the smaller farmers would have been able to secure support as satellite farmers.
In his 2005 socio economic study in the target area, Wheeler recorded mixed responses to the value and profitability of savannah farming vis-a-vis traditional riverain systems. He reported that peanut and red pea farmers complained of declining yields and low profitability, but they also admitted significant gaps in their current crop production technology primarily from lack of access to the specialized inputs and mechanization. The simple logic is that if farmers are complaining now of declining yields, it follows that savannah yields must have been better and more profitable in times past, presumably because of their easier access to production inputs and markets for their produce. Bear in mind, that unlike coastal soils, these savannah soils are absolutely non-productive in their virgin state, and must be ameliorated and fertilized to stimulate initial production. The value of the land improves with successive cropping under recommended agronomic regimes, and consequently so does its productivity. As a corollary there would be a gradual decline in farm production costs (related especially to fertilizer and limestone) per unit of land farmed over time, given recommended agronomic practices and sustainable production systems.
In the absence of accelerated agricultural development the farmers have had to seek other options elucidated in Stabroek News of 7 August 2008 –“Wiruni farmers target manicole, crabwood oil to make ends meet” Undoubtedly, heart of palm and crabwood oil and soap manufacture command a significant place in the community’s economic survival, however most farmers have always seen these activities as ancillary occupations supportive of their main pursuits of farming and logging, and as activities to which home based family members could contribute.
The missing Links: It is clear that over the past decade or so, the sharp decline in state sponsored agricultural activity in the Upper Berbice River /Intermediate Savannahs area, has negatively influenced the capacity of the local agricultural communities to sustain their levels of commercial agricultural exploitation, both on their homesteads and in the savannahs. The Guyana National Service center at Kimbia phased out, and the LIDCO Ebini livestock station became inoperative. The Paulownia tree plantation project which commenced a few years ago at in the abandoned Kimbia cotton lands, showed some promise as providing a lifeline for smaller savannah farmers, both as part time employment, and in tree planting on sections of their land as a long term revenue prospect from logs for plywood manufacture; however progress recently on that project has been pedestrian. Add to this equation the irregular arrangements for passenger and cargo service from these communities to New Amsterdam, since the discontinuation of the Government steamer, and we recognize that these folks have to do whatever is humanly possible (heart of palm and crabwood seed collection) to “brace themselves economically” …according to Lennox Eastman one of the leading savannah farmers, in his August 7th Stabroek News conversation on the state of business in the Kimbia sub district.
Agricultural Investment – Intermediate Savannahs:
The history of agricultural investment in the Intermediate Savannahs is one chequered with glimmers of hope and episodes of frustration. Suffice to say that there are a few exemplary success stories today from which lessons could be learnt for future ventures. The Dubulay Ranch in the Tacama savannahs has, by dint of hard work and pioneering enterprise, developed a savannah agribusiness model with considerable merit. There are other local developers / investors in the Kibilibiri and Eberoabo Savannahs who have embarked on sheep and goat production. In the selfsame Wiruni Savannahs, where the Berbice River small farmers are located, there is proposal by another investment group for a goat project of significant proportions. In the Tacama Savannahs commercial production of exotic fruits and vegetables and mixed cropping have been yielded encouraging results, again frustrated by the logistics of area access and transportation.
Another venture, which is currently in the final stages of planning, and almost ready for implementation and which has been arousing some interest locally and regionally is a proposal for a citrus-based agro-industrial complex in the Tacama Savannahs by the Cooperative Citrus Growers Association of Trinidad and Tobago. This is expected to be a multi enterprise (legumes, fruits, root crops, hot pepper) citrus-based production complex in the Intermediate Savannahs, with associated agro-processing capacity in Linden, and in which satellite farmers will be expected to play a significant role. Some of the satellite farmers to be targeted are the same riverain residents that hold leases in the Wiruni Savannahs, however, there are a majority of others who may not have an interest in the savannahs, but are farming riverain lands close to their homesteads, and might be interested in the proposed satellite-farming scheme. This initiative would target those farmers as well; some of whom are in cash crop production, and may currently be availing themselves of an ongoing LEAP Region 10 farmer technical assistance project on land clearing to initiate commercial farming. These farmers would now have the opportunity to invest in citrus after their initial cycle of cash crop farming on their cleared land, rather than allowing their land to slip back into bush fallow, and perpetuating the cut /burn /fallow cycle.
An opportunity would therefore present itself in the not too distant future for these riverain farmers to enlist as satellite farmers on the proposed CCGA citrus scheme, when it is launched – hopefully toward the end of 2008- and to utilize their farmed out cash crop (riverain) land for succession cropping with citrus, as a permanent crop. This initiative could serve as a platform from which the savannah group would launch a much bigger scheme to move citrus into their savannah leased land, in combination with the cash crops recommended for those soils –red peas, watermelon and other cucurbits and hot pepper. The bottom line would see commercial farming reactivated at both the riverain and savannah levels with appropriate support mechanisms put in place for success.
Economic benefits: Economic benefits to participating communities could be significant. Near estimates will have to await an ex- ante socio economic analysis of the target areas, however, at best, it is estimated that the economies of households in the Upper Berbice River could virtually double from this initiative by the fifth year of the development. The presence of the agro-investor, growing and processing citrus and other products would also spread economic benefits beyond the Upper Berbice River communities to adjacent communities of Ituni, Kwakwani, Linden and even as far removed as the Soesdyke Linden Highway.
The next sequence of articles will provide arguments on the Intermediate Savannahs as a logical choice for any substantial agro-industrial development and agriculture diversification thrust.
