A farming couple in West Berbice are worried that they will have to vacate lands that they have occupied and cultivated since 1990 and for which they have been paying Drainage and Irrigation charges with the expectation that the land would be eventually leased to them.
They reside at Onverwagt Main Canal Trafalgar, about four miles from the public road. They have been living on the land since 1990 having shared a common law union since 1985. They are both rice farmers and also rear cattle and fish.
According to the couple, they were asked to vacate the land last year and were told that the land on which they were situated was leased to a farmer with large holdings.
Last weekend, Stabroek News visited the homestead of Hardutt and Bobby and spoke with them about their plight and how they hope to have the matter resolved.
They said that sometime in 1990 they occupied a piece of land measuring about 3.5 acres on the main canal area of land within the Mahaica Mahaicony Abary Agriculture Development Authority Scheme at Onverwagt West Coast Berbice.
They said that at the time that they occupied the land, it was abandoned, full of bushes and trees and they had to clear it with bulldozers which the MMA has provided.
In 1994 the MMA informed them that they would have to pay drainage and irrigation charges as occupiers of the land and the couple agreed to this.
“On April 4, 1996 we applied to the MMA-ADA for a lease of 15 acres of land on the Onverwagt main canal for rice farming,” they said. They said that on July 25, 1996, the then General Manager of the MMA-ADA Roy Singh and the Land Selection Committee met with them and gave them permission to continue occupying the land but at advised them that instead of applying for 15 acres they should instead apply for two acres.
“…at the aforesaid meeting the MMA-ADA … informed that we were qualified for allocation of two acres, which plot was never leased to any other person or entity and which he undertook to give us,” the pair said in a written statement. They were advised by their legal counsel that the fact that MMA-ADA required them to pay drainage and irrigation fees gave them reasonable expectation that they would be granted a lease for the land.
According to the pair, on October 30, 2012 the MMA-ADA summoned them to a meeting and they met with General Manager of the Rice Producers Association Dharamkumar Seeraj, General Manager of the MMA Aubrey Charles and Chairman of the MMA Board Rudolph Gajraj.
The pair denies that they are trespassers on the land and believe that any leave granted to another party for the land is null and void.
According to the couple, “the man came to our land with a hymac and told us he wanted to prepare the land for construction and that we should move out. We refused and he threatened to hand us over to the Police.”
They said that they received a letter from a lawyer informing that the large rice farmer is the holder of the lease of the 3.5 acres of land and that they were trespassing on it.
“I was planting the land all the time and just like that the MMA took the land from me and give this [man]. He sent us a paper saying stop planting the land, so the land leave like that, we are not planting,” said Hardutt.
“We had coconut trees, big, big…tangerine trees, lime trees, a whole section with squash, banana, cherry, all kinds of fruits we plant,” he said. He noted that they reap about 100 bags of paddy per crop.
Hardutt’s wife Bobby said that as a result of the demand against them to move, they had to sell off their livestock except for a few animals that they have sent to relatives to tend to.
She said that while they used to make a living from the crops that they cultivate on the land, it is now difficult for them. She said that her husband used to work also as a guard at a seed plant next to their property but because of the on-going land feud, he had to leave that job. “ He had a nervous breakdown due to that.
He started seeing things like people running to kill him and things like that,” she said. She said that he had to be taken to the doctor to be treated for his condition.
“We would hardly be in there at nights, you wouldn’t take the chance.” Bobby said. “Since we fell in love we wanted our own farm but I guess we are just too small to dream big,” she lamented.
