The image of success and ‘plenty’ that so often characterizes Guyana’s agricultural sector conceals the hard work, sacrifice and frequently the frustration which, more often than we imagine, impacts their lives and livelihoods. Challenges and setbacks are, all too often, a way of life. They tend, all too often, to visit those farming communities where resources are limited and where, sometimes, the distance between disappointment and disaster can be razor thin.
Situated on the Central Corentyne corridor, approximately twenty-three miles from New Amsterdam Philippi is one of those farming communities that is no stranger to disappointment. The farmers there are known as much for their fine crops that include bell pepper, sweet pepper boulanger, pumpkin and cabbage (their watermelon, bora, tomato, eschellot and celery are also known to attract good markets) as for their resilience in enduring and finding ways around challenges and disappointment.
Bryan Albert, one of the formers we visited recently, had been known to us from his visit to the Providence UNCAPPED event staged by the Guyana Manufacturing & Services Association (GMSA) earlier this year. We were keeping a promise made to him during Providence meeting to ‘drop in’ on his farm whenever we were in that ‘neck of the woods.’