A 68-year-old pensioner and her son of Bath Settlement, West Coast Berbice suffered losses amounting to $3 million after their one-acre farm was destroyed in an apparent attack.
Amaloon Bickram told Stabroek News that her son, Harriram Seelall suspected that the celery and eschallot farm was “sprayed” with a poisonous substance on Monday morning.
Seelall had gone to water the plants when he noticed that they had started to wither. He told his mother when he got home but she dismissed it, thinking that it was caused by too much sunlight.
But he became more concerned when he returned the following day and found that the plants had become “yellow.” They then made a report to the Fort Wellington Police Station.
Ranks subsequently visited and conducted tests and it was confirmed that the water from the nearby trench that was used on the plants was poisoned.
The distressed woman said they would have reaped more than $100,000 worth of celery yesterday. The plants were in two stages and the crop would have lasted until after the Christmas season.
The woman said she had been planting on the land located close to her home, for the past 20 years.
