-Persaud tells farmers
Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud on Saturday met with some East Coast farmers to assure them that proper drainage and irrigation remains priority as efforts to expand agriculture are boosted.
A Government Information Agency (GINA) press release said Persaud told Buxton/Friendship and Enterprise farmers that a considerable amount of work has been done to boost drainage, especially on the pump basin and in the backlands and canals along the Coast. He said too this was in keeping with efforts to revive and expand agricultural cultivation in East Coast communities that have the potential for agriculture which would also be a boost to the economy.
Government has invested a significant amount of resources and has been working with the farmers’ group, GINA said. In this respect, Persaud said nearly $30M was spent to enhance the drainage capacity and government has been working with the region, the neighbourhood democratic councils, farmers groups and contractors to try to improve these drainage facilities.
The minister said a lot of work will be done on the Crown Dam because over time it has eroded and cavities have developed which led to water entering the community. “As such, there was no first line of defence between the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC) and the Crown Dam,” the release said.
Earlier, the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) could not carry out remedial work because of security concerns but work on the Dam had been planned between the last rainy season and this rainy season. The works are expected to last two years. A majority of the works would be done at Victoria.
Meanwhile, NDIA Chief Executive Officer Lionel Wordsworth said that rehabilitative works will be carried out from Lusignan to Strathspey. All the sidelines leading to the front lines in Buxton will also be rehabilitated. “Work will be done on the old sluice to increase the flow because it is critical to releasing water,” he said.
Persaud explained that a pump poured water into the basin which in turn released it via the sluice but this structure proved inadequate. “As a result of this old mechanism used by the Guyana Sugar Corporation, all pumps will throw water into the Atlantic Ocean,” he said.
Regarding farmers’ concerns about the outfall channel, Persaud said two excavators and pontoon will soon arrive to dredge the channel. This equipment will be moving from Abary to the East Coast to dredge outfall channels at Buxton, Hope, Golden Grove and Greenfield the release said. Contractor Courtney Benn is in the process of building another piece of equipment for dredging, it added.
Persaud said too the NDIA is responsible for maintaining the primary drainage systems and the NDC the secondary ones but often the NDIA cannot wait for them to act. The minister said he was hopeful that the local government elections will bring “new blood”, in the light of residents’ complaints that the NDCs were not dealing effectively with drainage and irrigation issues. Persaud told Enterprise residents that he too was dissatisfied with the works done and he advised them to collaborate in groups to address these issues.
Additionally, Buxton farmers were told that aspects of the Rural Enterprise and Agricultural Development Project (READ) will interface with them in terms of building their capacity and mainstreaming. He said that there will be an increased presence of crops officers in the area and more training programmes.
The minister also spoke of a countrywide animal breeding programme from which farmers are expected to benefit. He said farmers who were interested in artificial insemination for their livestock could either get it done freely or pay 30% of the cost. He then told cane farmers to proceed in their venture since 40,000 tonnes of sugar will be needed at the Enmore packaging plant. Persaud also used the opportunity to remind Buxtonians that it was time to move forward since they had missed out on a number of opportunities.
At Enterprise, he said he would facilitate talks with Guysuco to garner more land for farmers especially cattle farmers. Farmers had claimed that there was some amount of land aback the savannah which they could use.
