Time was when Linden was widely perceived as a ‘spoilt’ township, a community pampered on the luxury of a bauxite industry from which it derived paid employment and sundry other attendant privileges including ridiculously subsidized electricity and sundry other perks and privileges most of which were associated with the presence of a world-renowned bauxite mining company.
It had been felt, as well, that the amenities associated with bauxite mining had had the effect of blinding the community to its other blessings, not least the agricultural potential which the nearby intermediate savannahs afforded. In truth, there had always been modest clusters of intrepid farmers in the community but it was always painfully apparent that potential outweighed evidence of genuine effort.
Few people, too, appeared to mind the ‘export’ of fresh fruit and vegetables from other distant communities into Linden and the attendant patently dangerous and embarrassing situation that had arisen out of this monopoly. In times of the plenty which bauxite afforded the community it appeared that not a great deal of attention was paid to this anomaly. Incrementally, the layers of vulnerability of the community to ‘outside’ pressures were being peeled away.
Agriculture as a serious initiative in Linden has, over the years, surfaced in fits and starts. Last week, Stabroek Business spoke with Regional Chairman Renis Morian about yet another initiative, a ‘ground up’ plan, so to speak, to design and build sixteen shade houses for farming Cooperative Societies that will include seven of the Region’s Secondary Schools. As part of the initiative the groups will receive training in shade house techniques as well as other areas of orientation associated with farming. The initiative is being implemented in collaboration with the Ministries of Agriculture, Education, Public Infrastructure and the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) of Region 10 among others. All of this amounts to saying that insofar as buckling down to the realization of its evident agricultural potential, Linden is playing catchup.
The Regional Chairman, it seems, has gotten the point. He wants the community, he says, to begin to see agriculture as a potentially profitable business pursuit. Historically, that has not been the case. By beginning with the allocation of shade house projects to secondary schools, the Project seeks to tackle the problem ‘at the root’ so to speak, by ensuring that the youngsters develop an appreciation of ‘the business of farming’ early in their lives.
Morian says that the point at which the Project stands reflects a point in what has been a decade-long journey by the RDC for an initiative of the kind that is now taking shape. Government, he says, has finally approved $22,7 million for the programme in the country’s 2019 budget. He sees this as the start of an attempt to recapture the modest efforts of the ‘70’s and ‘80’s when the Berbice River area contributed to Linden’s fragile food security, when the Transport and Harbours ferry traversed the Berbice River between Kwakwani and New Amsterdam carrying passengers and cargo. That service ended abruptly in 1992 throwing the food security arrangements for the affected areas into uncertainty. The better off farmers acquired boats and engines and continued to transport their produce to the market at New Amsterdam while the less fortunate ones were forced out of business and afterwards migrated from the places where they had once made a good living.
Linden’s contemporary food security woes were accentuated with the floods of 2005 when damage to farms in areas like the Mahaica and Mahaicony Creeks drove up the prices for fruits and vegetables. Working at that time with Oxfam Disaster Management, Morian says he witnessed, first hand, the extent of the decimation of farming communities resulting from the flooding.
He talks, too, about the psychological battle associated with building a resilient farming culture in Linden, a challenge which he says is located in the fact that the historical circumstances of Linden have meant that mining is “embedded in the DNA of Lindeners. They still aspire to work either in the gold fields or bauxite industry……”
Madena
Not that earlier attempts had not been made to change the mindset. In 2018 the Madena Cooperative Society Limited had been established on the Mabura Road. Managed by a group of young farmers the project was tasked with planting 300 head of cabbage on two acres of a five- hundred-acre area. They are treating this as a successful pilot. The cabbages were cultivated, grown, harvested and sold to consumers in Regions Seven, Eight and Nine. The farmers, Morian says, are raring to go again under the new project. Morian says the RDC will back them with seeds, water tanks and manure.
As one of its preoccupations, going forward, the RDC has targeted the Delawana Farm, once a thriving venture but, these days, no more than a jungle.
The RDC is also looking to resuscitate Millie’s Hide Out. A forty five-mile road which begins at the welcome to Linden junction and ends at Tacama on the Berbice River. Morian says that there are, these days, several farmers planting crops there but that the state of the roads makes the movement of produce to market difficult. Once the roads are done, he says, more will be expected of farming in that area.
Hopefully, the allocation of funding for agriculture in Region 10 coupled with a sound plan to accelerate farming as an economic option will see the food security rating of the community change. Recently, the RDC moved to appoint Lindener Deryck Collins, an Agronomist, as the community’s Regional Agricultural Officer. Collins told Stabroek Business that in 2012-2013 while serving as an Extension Officer with NAREI he had been part of a team assigned to undertake a study to determine the volume of cash crops being ‘imported’ into Linden. The numbers were revealing. Approximately 82% of the cash crops consumed in Linden were being imported from Regions Three, Five and Six. He does not believe that there has been any change in the numbers.
The shade house allocation is key to the overall initiative. These will be set up by the RDC and, perhaps prematurely, thinking has already extended into production and markets. Three Hostels in the Region managed by the Ministry of Education have already been targeted as internal markets. Each shade house is expected to cost around $700,000 and Linden businesses are ‘chipping in’ by providing the materials at reduced costs. Construction will commence during the July-August holiday period and the shade houses are expected to be ‘up and running’ in the new school year. The seven schools expected to benefit from shade houses are the Mackenzie, Linden Foundation, New Silver City, Harmony, Kwakwani, Christianburg-Wismar and Wisroc Secondary schools. Four schools will also be ‘fitted out’ to undertake poultry, aquaculture and swine projects. The Parent-Teachers Associations are being encouraged to assist with the building of the pens for the poultry and swine. The schools’ initiative is also targeting support for the delivery of the agriculture curriculum at Caribbean Examinations Council exams. Currently the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) Agriculture Science students are afforded the use of private farms to complete the practical aspect of their examination. Accordingly, their access is constrained by time-tables set by the farm owners.
The other aspect of the project seeks to provide shade houses to farming groups or Cooperative Societies rather than individuals. There are about four known Cooperative Societies in Region 10 and the community is being encouraged to add to that number. Potential locations for additional ones include Kwakwani, Ituni, Canvas City, Wisroc, Coomacka, and Ebini in the Berbice River. Additionally work will include soil and water testing to determine the suitability of the identified locations.
Historically, Linden has suffered from an age-old problem of delayed investment resulting from bureaucratic sloth. He complains again about what he says is the ponderous pace at which the Lands and Survey Department is moving. “It takes too long’ for an application to be processed,” Morian says. Still he is banking of what he believes is a renewed impetus arising out of an enhanced awareness among Lindeners of the need to change their fortunes.
