The Alliance For Change (AFC) is urging the government to deliver on a promise it made to provide alternative land for displaced farmers of the Leonora Dairy Farmers’ Co-op Society, whose land was cleared last year to accommodate the construction of a new secondary school and a modern athletic track.
According to the AFC, the 40-acre plot of land at Edinburg First Plot, Leonora, West Coast Demerara was cleared on May 27, 2010 without any oral or written notice being given to the group, which had managed the land for over two decades. The group had also been paying rates and taxes, the AFC said.
“This 40-acre cultivation plot at Leonora provided grass for over 200 head of cattle. The number of farmers affected is approximately 50, and they reside between Hague and Stewartville, West Coast Demerara,” the AFC said. “Milk provided to consumers in the area has decreased as a result,” it added.
Following the move by the government, Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud met farmers and told them that a 30-acre plot located at the back of the now defunct Leonora sugar factory would be prepared and handed over to them. To date, this has not happened, the AFC charged.
“The AFC calls on this unconscionable and uncaring PPP administration to do the decent thing and fast-track the development of the promised 30-acre plot of land for the benefit of the West Coast cattle farmers,” the statement said. “The PPP must stop promising and deliver,” the AFC said.
