…Transportation and communication
Historical episodes on commercial agricultural activity in the Upper Berbice River sub region, and the Intermediate Savannahs have endorsed the inherent difficulties of physical access and communication links. Both are vital elements in any developmental situation. Access to the sub region is possible by river and road, however the enabling mechanisms to facilitate free and easy transportation have been less than adequate for quite some time. In a currently worsening situation one can justly posit that this is now a major limiting in developmental factor.
Exactly where is the Intermediate Savannahs located within the Upper Berbice River sub-region?
This is certainly not a question that would have been negated by John Public one generation ago.
Because the Kimbia National Service Centre impacted the lives of tens of thousands of Guyanese and their families during those pioneering days of savannah agriculture and boot camp discipline.
In consideration of the mixed sentiments on the usefulness and benefits of GNS Kimbia, one must concede that this opportunity afforded a significant cross section of society, and other nationalities as well, to visit, experience and work together in a unique hinterland ecosystem, hitherto relatively unknown. It would have been memorable, for most.
Today our current -generation adolescents are divorced from and unfamiliar with this important sub-region, once deemed the second frontier of agricultural development. We must reverse this trend by creating awareness, and publicizing its socio economic status and developmental potential in order to stimulate agricultural development and ancillary economic activity. The history on savannah agricultural is too rich and diverse, and the challenge on sustainable commercial agriculture too overpowering for it to be ignored. But its hinterland status and sparsely populated terrain are undoubtedly major constraints to agricultural exploitation and socio-economic development. These are surmountable challenges.
Geographical Location:
The Intermediate Savannahs of Guyana is situated approximately 160km (100 miles) south east of the city of Georgetown and 150km (80 miles) south of New Amsterdam in the Upper Berbice River sub-region of Region 10. The savannah region comprises a landmass of 250,000 ha of grassed terrain of rolling topography, interspersed with forested lands (in which commercial logging is permitted) and dissected by numerous creeks and watercourses. About 50,000 ha (123,000 acres) of this land represents gently sloping brown sand savannah, suitable for agriculture, interspersed among the forested areas and white sand plateaus. The savannah sub-region comprises six discrete areas of expansive savannah, four of which are located on the western bank of the Berbice river and two on the eastern bank. The available arable land of 50000 ha is distributed across the five “sub savannahs”. Each sub- savannah, while ecologically similar, has its own peculiarities in terms of geographical features and access..
Table 1: Identification of sub-zones and their locations In the Intermediate Savannahs
Arable
Sub-Savannah Location Acreage* Remarks
Tacama west Berbice river 28,000ha section occupied by GDF
north of Ituni river
Kibilibiri west Berbice river 4,000ha formerly Global Agri. Ind. Ltd
south Ituni river
Eberoabo west-Berbice river 6,000ha formerly Caricom corn /soya
south-Eberoabo creek
Ebini/ Kimbia east Berbice river 15,000ha LIDCO / GNS: BRAFCO
n/e Wikki creek
Wiruni west-Berbice river 6,000ha small farmers mainly
North Wiruni river
* Acreage: Represents only the arable lands comprising grassed brown sand savannahs. Forested areas creek and river courses and white sand plains are excluded.
Access and Transportation:
From Georgetown and other coastal regions, the Upper Berbice River region and Intermediate Savannahs can be accessed through Linden, from whence a 60km unpaved road will take you to the small community of Ituni, closest to which is the Tacama Savannahs. Travel distances and times are as follows:
* Georgetown / Linden 104km 90 min Paved road
* Linden / Ituni 50km 70 to150 min. Unpaved depends on weather
* Ituni / Tacama 40km 80 min trail/ dirt track
A total distance of about 125 miles (200km) will take 31/2 to 6 hours depending on the state of the Ituni road. Access to the eastern savannahs of Ebini and Kimbia by road requires a pontoon crossing at the Tacama waterfront, and a drive through a three mile forested strip on the opposite bank of the Berbice river into the savannahs. This road, built in the 1970s is now impassable, obliging a pontoon bypass through the nearby Wikki creek to a point called Waya, where the vehicle drives off directly into the Ebini savannah.
Road access to the Kibilibiri and Eberoabo Savannahs is through Ituni, following the Aroiama Kwakwani road with appropriate diversions. This road is laterite surfaced and requires periodic maintenance for year round serviceability. In recent times this routine road maintenance has not been happening, and consequently commuters from the savannahs and from the communities of Kwakwani, Aroaima, Bamboo Landing, and Ituni have been experiencing “nightmares” in their journeying back and forth.
The Wiruni Savannahs on the west bank of the Berbice, is serviced by a trail popularly known as the Millies Hideout trail, which takes the commuter directly from the outskirts of Linden across difficult white sand flats and forested terrain into the Wiruni /St Lust savannahs, a distance of 80km. The problem is that most of this terrain lies within the watershed or source of the Abary and Mahaicony creeks, and is flooded in the wet seasons. The original trails have themselves been decimated by the traverse of heavy log skidders and timber trucks operating in the area, and is now less used than before, by commuting savannah farmers. There is active and controversial debate on whether this route should be improved to stimulate agricultural activity in the Wiruni Savannahs and the adjacent riverain communities of Kimbia, St. Lust, Maria Henrietta and Sand Hills.
Road travel across the savannahs and from one sub savannah to the next can be achieved with standard four-wheel drive vehicles, except for the crossing of the major creeks and rivers that dissect the terrain. Most areas of brown sand savannah are easily traversable without road improvement intervention; however there are some intermittent swamps, white sand flats and forested areas that pose problems, especially during wet periods.
Creeks of variable size – all tributaries of the Berbice, separate four sub-savannahs on the western bank of the Berbice River. Bridging of these rivers / creeks would establish a functional and effective road network, linking farms and facilitating intra-savannah communication.
Waterway access – the Berbice River:
The other main access option from the populated centers of the coastal region into the savannahs is the marine option, which can provide shipping linkages with the two major ports of Georgetown and New Amsterdam, via the Berbice river which is navigable to small ocean going vessels (100 tons) as well as tugs and barges up to a point thirty miles further up-river from Tacama. The use of this route for the movement of large tonnages of inputs (limestone and fertilizers) would be more economical than by trucking through Linden and Ituni. For this reason the existence of functional wharves within the Berbice River communities is vital to any developmental thrust.
Wharves will have to be supported by storage facilities for bulk inputs and infrastructure for loading and offloading vessels, as was the situation in the era of major agricultural thrusts at Kimbia / Ebini (National Service) Kibilibiri (Global Agri) and Eberoabo (Caricon Corn SoyaProject).
The main tributaries of the Berbice River might also be considered as functional transportation routes to service the associated communities, and to facilitate marketing and input acquisition.
There also exists a river barge service to link the east and west banks of the Berbice river at the Tacama landing. This service facilitates travelers taking the overland option of traveling to Ebini and Kimbia.
In times past the “Berbice River Boat” (which in those days was the Lady Northcote) would leave Stanleytown wharf at 21 hrs and steam up river during the night, stopping at the numerous stellings and whistle stops along the way, and picking up as well as delivering passengers cargo mail and almost any imaginable item to communities along the way. This service was complemented by two passenger launches– Parakeet and Quamina -from Kwakwani operating on a weekly schedule. There was also the routine run of the MV Jaimito, a general-purpose GNS cargo passenger vessel that was the workhorse and lifeline of the Kimbia National Service Centre.
Air access: Two currently functional airstrips exist in the western savannahs, at Tacama, viz. the Guyana Defense Force airstrip to which access is restricted for security reasons, and the private airstrip on the Dubulay Ranch (Mendes). During the operation of the Caricom Corn and Soyabean Project in the early 1980’s there also existed an airstrip in the Eberoabo savannahs which is now defunct, as is the one built in the Kibilibiri Savannahs by government sponsored Gobal Agri project, to facilitate aerial crop spraying.
Flying time from the Ogle airport just outside Georgetown, is forty minutes; from the international airport at Timehri, about half an hour.
A Transportation
Communication Plan:
An entrepreneurial agro-investor who was forced out of his exotic fruit and vegetable farm five years ago because of spiraling fuel prices and poor roads, recently expressed a desire to return to savannah farming, should a sustainable road maintenance plan be instituted for the Linden Ituni Tacama Kwakwani network. This is good news, and an endorsement on the potential of the area. We now know that work on major road maintenance within that sub-region is to be initiated with Government and donor agency funding during this current dry season. The question is how sustainable and lasting will those works be? Dirt roads require service and maintenance and regulation in their use. Can agricultural investors carry such a burden? Certainly not in their early stages of investment. There are however other major corporate stakeholders involved in bauxite and logging who depend on these roads, as well as the communities of Ituni and Kwakwani. It is in the interest of all these groups to collectively build an awareness of the economic importance of these roads, and stake a claim in their proper maintenance. As for river transport, the resuscitation of a regular weekly river steamer seems a priority to jumpstart agricultural economic activity in those previously productive riverain communities. The debate on Millies Hideout road is still ongoing. The question is – will imminent planned agricultural investment stimulate the improvement of this route by the entrepreneurs themselves, or will Government provide the incentive to attract potential investors.
Futuristically, the East Bank Berbice road, which ends at Mara, can be pushed further south beyond Torani to Fort Nassau, which is considered the eastern gateway to the Intermediate Savannahs.
Such a road link would be of considerable economic advantage to Riverain communities and to international trade.
