Dear Editor,
Recently I saw on the front page of one of the dailies, pictures of cattle owners/policemen during the process of impounding cattle. I suppose such occurrences have become common wherever agricultural activities are undertaken along the coastal region of Guyana. Although the pictures may seem amusing to some, it is a sad time for livestock rearers. The fees for recovering impounded animals have been increased to the exorbitant amount of ten thousand dollars per head.
Cattle and livestock-rearing generally, provide one of the main legitimate means through which landless people and small farmers can earn additional income to support their usually inadequate income from other activities. Our Minister of Agriculture usually encourages farmers to produce more, but there seems to be some lack of communication or co-operation between himself and the Minister of Home Affairs.
Judging from the unparalleled speed with which the related laws were enacted and are being enforced one is led to suspect that such actions may have reasons beyond the clearing of roadways of stray cattle and other livestock.
Cattle farmers were assured that lands would be made accessible for livestock production before the enforcement of new impounding laws, which to date remains an empty promise.
On that note, it has been observed that there has been no establishment of any agriculture scheme in Guyana for at least the past twenty years. The government seems bent on the foreign investment principle, and that would lead us back to colonization. Small and medium-scale farmers would have to close shop and seek underpaid jobs with the said investors instead of engaging in their usual self-employed mode of agriculture. With the recent additional constraint of increased impounding fees and activity, that seems inevitable.
Additionally, there has never been any known development of an agricultural scheme specifically for livestock since Guyana’s severance from colonial rule. On the contrary, it has been observed that traditional grazing areas along the coast have been taken for paddy cultivation, sugarcane, housing schemes, recreational facilities, inland fishing, roads and bridges, and environmental restoration projects, all with the connivance or approval of the government. During such processes, no provision or consideration had been given to relocating or facilitating livestock. It is an injustice to dislocate people through the implementation of laws and projects and to abandon them to their own means.
Accessibility to pasturelands would alleviate a host of constraints, including the one under focus, and it would allow for considerable improvements in animal husbandry practices, and by extension, productivity in the sector. It is time that one or more livestock production land development scheme is developed in each coastal region of the country. This is a necessity at this time, and would be a feather in the cap of our Minister of Agriculture.
Regarding accidents on the roadways allegedly involving livestock, I would like to touch on three points.
Firstly, it is the same dislocation mentioned that contributes to the increase of stray livestock on the roads. The animals in search of food usually become unrestrainable and escape from the owners, while some owners, having no alternative, sometimes deliberately allow the animals to forage at will, and they stray along the roadsides where herbage is usually found in abundance.
Secondly, no statistics had ever been proffered to show the percentage of accidents supposedly caused by livestock as against other contributors, including drivers of vehicles, to road accidents.
The third point would tie in with the second since it is observed that investigations are not usually meticulously carried out to verify claims of vehicle operators regarding the involvement of livestock in accidents and the culpability/contribution of such vehicle operators towards the accidents. It is known that drunken and reckless, speeding drivers usually are quick to blame a cow for causing them to run off the road.
Increased impounding fees and activities have directly and indirectly increased the production costs of livestock products for small farmers on most parts of Guyana’s coastland. Consequently, it may be necessary to increase the selling price of both milk and beef on the hoof to about two hundred dollars per pint and five hundred dollars per pound respectively. Ironically, beef remains the cheapest meat in our markets, and the most heartbreaking to produce, prompting me to call on our National Cattle Farmers Association and other farmers associations to be reorganized, strengthened, and start representing the interest of livestock farmers, maybe beginning with a nation-wide, agreed increase in the selling price of livestock products.
In closing, I would like to express my solidarity with my fellow grieving livestock farmers, and call on the Minister of Agriculture to show some gusto and do something tangible for the advancement of the livestock industry before it is too late, the industry presently being on the brink of doom.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address provided)
