Make mention of thriving agricultural communities across Guyana and the East Bank community of Mocha is not the first name that comes to mind, but over the years some of the longstanding land holders in this tightly knit community have drawn wider attention to their efforts to make a living from cultivating its backlands and finding markets for their produce.
Over time Mocha’s farmers have caught the attention of the Guyana Marketing Corporation’s Farmers’ Exchange Programme and on October 23 the Mocha Farmers’ Group became the latest collection of local farmers to host the GMC’s Farmers Exchange Visit.
The Farmers’ Exchange Visit is a strategic tool employed by the GMC to enable knowledge-sharing among farmers from various communities across the country and on October 23, as part of its Agriculture Month programme, the GMC’s Extension Department afforded more than 25 farmers from Mocha the opportunity to visit farms at Parika, a farming community that continues to attract significant national attention.
The GMC says that the purpose of these visits is twofold. First, they aim at establishing “social relationships” between and among farming communities across Guyana and secondly they seek to create mutually beneficial “linkages” amongst farmers. The visitors to Parika from Mocha, the GMC says, benefitted from the opportunity afforded them to observe farming practices in a community which has long made its mark in the agricultural sector, the idea being that the visiting farmers would learn from the experiences of their colleague farmers in other communities. According to the information reaching Stabroek Business from the GMC, the farms visited by the farmers from Mocha cultivated a range of vegetables including ochro, kale, pak choi and turmeric, all widely-consumed foods with lucrative markets.
Interaction between and amongst the farmers is a critical part of these exchange visits and the GMC says that having seen the work of their compatriots from Parika, the farmers from Mocha participated in animated discussion with their counterparts from Parika with a view to determining the various ways in which the two sides could benefit from the visit. Dookie said subsequently that he was satisfied that the farmers from Mocha and Parika were able to develop new and potentially mutually beneficial linkages that could be of mutual benefit to the two communities. Stabroek Business’ own feedback suggests that the visitors from Mocha demonstrated a keen interest in the land preparation, general farm layout and irrigation methods employed by their Parika counterparts.
Stabroek Business understands that the Parika farmers have already accepted an invitation to pay a return visit to Mocha and to visit the farms there.
Afterwards, General Manager of the Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC) Ida Sealey-Adams explained that exchange visits amongst farming communities are being used across the world as a means of farmers’ sharing and embracing best practices. The GMC’s CEO said that the idea of having farmers from Mocha visit a farming community with considerable experience in cultivating cash crops was treated as an opportunity to afford the farmers from Mocha an opportunity to be part of an experience that would provide an incentive for them to raise their own game.
According to Sealey-Adams such visits can lead to significant changes in ways of thinking “and a subsequent translation of ideas into action.”
The GMC General Manager envisages that the Corporation will continue to pursue such exchange visits as a means of encouraging the adoption of enhanced farming practices, improved quality and lucrative prices for farmers.
