– no markets, no planting, Persaud tells farmers
The Agriculture Ministry will be more aggressive in seeking export markets, Minister Robert Persaud pledged yesterday, though he said if farmers don’t have markets they should not plant and ultimately an agro-industrial base will be the salvation for the sector.
Persaud made the comments as he spoke to over four dozen farmers at the Parika Back Primary School yesterday while expressing the view that today’s problems are perhaps, not the major bugbear and this is why the ministry will be embarking on fixing the “big things. We have to develop new systems in terms of production, new systems in terms of planning and that is what we’re seeking to do.” Persaud added that it will not happen overnight.
“Some of the things that we are doing, some of the structural changes that we are making in the sector you will not see the results next year. You will not see the results in the life of this current government. You will see the results later. But you have to do it. And we have to start doing it if we want a modern and competitive agricultural system”.
Stabroek News has begun publication of a series of articles on the food security and export-oriented Grow More Food campaign, and among the major issues highlighted by farmers was the lack of markets.
Persaud, yesterday said that the ministry aims to get much more export activities. While saying that exports have gone up, he pledged that they will be more aggressive from the farmers’ standpoint and also from the exporters and the facilitation service of the New Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC). He said that Guyana has achieved food security and every additional level of production will have to target the export market. Targeting this market will require that things be done differently, he said. “It will require us to ensure that we have quality and we also have the required quantity and that when we enter into contracts with buyers that we honour those.”
He said he trusted that the New GMC had addressed the issue farmers raised of linking them with exporters.
He said farmers have to keep an eye on costs as when they export, they will be competing internationally. He also pointed out that they are vulnerable to price movements. “We also have to change our production cycle not have this thing everybody planting pepper one time and then there is a glut in pepper, then everybody run and plant tomatoes, then there is a glut in tomato… we have to plan,” Persaud said, adding that this is where the New GMC and the extension system has to work; advising farmers based on the market needs.
It will also require a change on farmers’ part, he said, telling them that they have to move away from an attitude of believing that it is somebody else’s problem or it is for government to solve. Persaud pointed out that government is spending over US$30 million in diversification and the value-chain concept is being advocated. He said that previously, production was focused on but now farmers should secure the market before they produce. “If you don’t have the market, don’t plant,” Persaud said. He said the role of government is to facilitate and provide support and that is what it will be doing.
But, he said, it is proving difficult to get into regional markets. “It is difficult to get this region to accept the fact that Guyana can produce and export. So every time you want to break into a market, you have to jump high, you got to jump low and you got to do all sorts of dance to get into the market,” the minister told the farmers. He said Guyana has to pay to get senior officials of those countries to come and check farms. “That is the battle we are waging within Caricom too,” he said, adding that other markets are being sought. “Ultimately it is value added that…will be the salvation for agriculture sector, having an agro-industrial base.” This is why there is a need for hydropower to process and gain higher prices, he said.
General Manager of the New GMC Nizam Hassan earlier spoke with farmers on the role of the agency, primarily in marketing and facilitating exports. He pointed out that the agency has a brokerage service. “We even make a few phone calls if you need,” he said, adding that the GMC is focusing a lot on exports but also provides linkages locally.
Farmers had raised the issue of crops, particularly cassava, being ploughed up because there was no market with this newspaper and one informed the minister that “acres and acres” of the crop had been ploughed up. “This is the reality farmers have to face,” he said. Ramnaresh, who said that he had ploughed up several acres of this crop, said that he had purchased orange seedlings instead. When asked by the minister, he said that he could not get these from the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) because “they get special people”. His statement was met with applause from the farmers who agreed.
A major issue was the functioning of the Water Users Association (WUA) and the minister was informed that executive members were awarding contracts to clear canals to themselves or family members. One executive member explained that this was because no one else wanted the contracts to which several farmers objected. “Big money involve. It is not transparent,” one farmer said.
In one example, it was revealed that the person tasked with monitoring a project was the son of the contractor. Persaud had earlier said that a Board of Inquiry is ongoing and several WUAs were remedied and the Board was about to look at particular concerns. He had said that in one instance, the accounts of the Parika WUA were frozen. Persaud said yesterday that because of the investigations, the WUA is about to be disbanded.
Earlier, he had pointed out that a $385 million project, to rehabilitate the drainage and irrigation system in the area and build structures and bridges in areas that were not rehabilitated for decades, had come to an end. “We have to reach the phase now in this project where continuity and sustainability must be the operative words,” he stressed. “Too often when we execute these works and we come back six months after we find that there has been a level of neglect.” Persaud urged the regional and local authorities as well as farmers to support the sustainable management of these resources. “Throughout the country we are seeing this trend where infrastructure works are being done, take for instance in agriculture, where canals are being done and then you pass back and I come back to communities and I watch and I seeing sheer overgrowth…”, he said emphasizing that residents have to be responsible.
Meantime, a contract to rehabilitate and maintain the pot-holed Parika Back road has been awarded, Persaud said. A $13 million contract was awarded to Eagle Transportation Service by the Ministry of Public Works for the rehabilitation and maintenance of the five kilometres road and this is an interim measure based on the resources available. The leftover funds from the drainage and irrigation project will be added to the contract to hopefully bring the sum up to $48 million so as to be able to have “some degree of an all-weather road,” Persaud said.
He urged the farmers and residents to monitor these works to ensure quality. “I am still not satisfied with the level of monitoring and supervision we having. Even the supervisory firms that we are engaging are not as diligent as they should be.”
He said that in some instances, they have contracted people externally to supervise projects so partners could feel comfortable. “And even I am dissatisfied as minister that when you pay these people to supervise, they are not supervising,” he said alluding to a situation where workers are waiting on the supervisors so they can work. One farmer said that lots of money was wasted in applying “crusher run” to the road in the past years with $5 million spent last year. Persaud asked the other farmers whether they should wait until government obtains the required sum for an all-weather road and no repairs should be done until then but the other farmers said no.
Other issues raised by farmers included two “death-trap” bridges and the prevalence of diseases during the rainy season. Naamryck farmer, Sooklall, said extension officials “come and drive in and drive out back…joyride”.
Another major issue for the cash crop farmers was the limited water for irrigation which is more acute during the rice planting season. Chief Executive Officer of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) Lionel Wordsworth said that an intake structure is the ultimate solution. Farmers told Stabroek News that officials had twice constructed intake structures but each time it was at the wrong place.
