Dear Editor,
With reference to an article published by Stabroek News on September 20 with the caption ‘Laluni farmers need assistance,’ the Guyana Agricultural Producers Association (GAPA) wishes to categorically denounce the insinuations that farmers of Laluni never received any form of assistance from GAPA.
It was GAPA that distributed seeds, chemicals and other things to the group, which was also advised to submit a proposal to GAPA for additional support. The proposal from the group never materialized.
During the outreach visit to the community farmers were advised to resuscitate the farmers’ group and register with GAPA with which they complied. No further representation was made to GAPA to assist farmers within Laluni. The GAPA continues to assist through the Ministry of Agriculture and its agencies to provide support to farmers and farmers’ groups. Over the last year GAPA continued to provide assistance in the form of fertilizers, seeds, chemicals, and drip and sprinkler irrigation systems to farmers’ groups across Guyana.
Also, GAPA through the Ministry of Agriculture organized the training of 48 farmers from Laluni at the Laluni Community Centre on October 12, 2009. The training was facilitated by representatives from the Pesticide and Toxic Chemicals Control Board, Plant Health, the National Agricultural Research Institute and the Guyana Marketing Corporation in a combined effort to provide training in the following areas: chemical usage, post-harvest management, farm certification, agricultural diversification, marketing, product pricing and costing, exporting to Caribbean and overseas, agro-processing and good manufacturing practices, and the preparation of produce for the export market.
Further, the Ministry of Agriculture’s National Drainage and Irrigation Authority executed works in excess of $4M to support the farmers of Laluni by clearing Laluni Canal No. 1 – 400 rods; Laluni Canal No. 2 – 400 rods; Laluni Canal No. 3 – 400 rods; Laluni Canal No. 4 – 400 rods; Laluni Canal No. 5 – 400 rods; Laluni Main Canal – 400 rods. These works were undertaken in 2007-2008 with the understanding that farmers would maintain the canals.
In addition, although the Ministry of Agriculture does have responsibility for access roads, in an effort to support the farmers of Laluni, the ministry expended in excess of $2M to facilitate the grading of the Laluni access dam in 2007-2008.
The Guyana Agriculture Producers Association which represents non-traditional farmers finds it appalling that Stabroek News did not seek a comment or clarification before publishing its article which seeks to maul the positive developments resulting from the Grow More Food Campaign.
Notwithstanding the challenges which are outstripped by opportunities, GAPA will continue to work closely with non-traditional farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture and other agencies to build upon our recent food secure status as announced by the FAO of the United Nations.
Yours faithfully,
Steve Mangal
National Coordinator
Guyana Agricultural Producers’
Association (GAPA)
Editor’s note
The story does report the farmers as acknowledging that they had received some seeds, however they went on to say that most did not germinate. One farmer said too that they had been advised how to spray and what to spray, although he did not clarify whether this was in the training session of October 12 which Mr Mangal cites.
Where the clearing of waterways is concerned, no farmer mentioned any canals, simply the Laluni Creek to which Mr Mangal makes no reference – unless his “Main Canal” really corresponds to the creek. Furthermore, we did report a farmer as explaining that the access road had been “graded” twice since 1994, but that now it was back to square one. We note that Mr Mangal states that the grading of the “access dam” was last undertaken in 2007-08, so it is hardly surprising that its condition has deteriorated considerably since then.
For the rest, we can only repeat in truncated form what we said in a note to a letter captioned ‘SN is trying to discredit the “Grow More Food” campaign,’ which was published on September 11. We began the series with an interview with Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud, and the second feature included the Minister again along with some farmers so the ministry’s view would be represented. One of the main objectives of this series is to initiate discussion on whether the campaign has been well thought out and has resulted in lower prices for consumers, larger profits for farmers, increased exports and lower imports of food. A rigorous evaluation of these outcomes would require the Ministry of Agriculture to provide detailed information on the annual investment in the campaign, the annual output for each crop targeted, farm and market prices for each item and the amounts exported compared to the years prior to the start of the campaign. Such information has not yet been forthcoming, but the ministry may rest assured that once it is made available, it will be published and further analysed.
