At 69, imminent retirement does not appear to be on Shameer Khan’s immediate-term agenda. The veteran Leguan farmer is still immersed in what has been a near lifelong pursuit – farming. His pursuits are spread across cattle, rice, plantains and cash crops – a mix of long-term investments and ‘quick turnover’ pursuits. Shrewd farmer that he is, he has learnt to master the pursuit of balance.
He doesn’t dwell on COVID-19. Not that he is unmindful of the threat that it poses, but he appears very much to embrace a life-has-to-go-on philosophy. Looking ahead he envisions further investments… in fruit and fish. Those he believes will ‘come good,’ down the road.
The Stabroek Business’ conversation with Khan earlier this week revealed a man immersed in the philosophy of fashioning opportunity out of adversity. It is not that he has abandoned his rice and cash crop pursuits, but the impact which COVID-19 has had on these aspects of his business pursuits has helped to focus his mind on the development of his envisaged diversification.
For the Waterloo, Leguan, resident, it is a matter of using the challenges and constraints brought about by the coronavirus to create new opportunities. Leguan has been Shameer’s home for all of his life. He attended the Saraswat Secondary School on the West Coast Demerara, remaining there long enough to complete his GCE “O’ levels. It was, he says, the absence of salaried employment that persuaded him to follow his parents into farming. He attributes much of his focus to the dependability of his wife of more than three decades, Lilawattie, whom he met at secondary school. The union produced three sons, all of whom are leading altogether separate lives.
Rice cultivation lies at the centre of the Leguan economy. More than 3,000 acres of the island are under rice cultivation and approximately the same amount is devoted to cash crops. A further 2,500 acres is populated by cattle. Like the other farmers on the island, Shameer takes his cash crops to the Parika Market by boat. That is the established ‘trading post’ and business is usually brisk there. However, the farmers from Leguan must compete with their counterparts from Ruby Back, a farming community close to Parika, as well as from Parika itself. The playing field is far from level. The farmers from Ruby Back and Parika are not burdened by the cost of freight.
Above everything else, COVID-19 represents a stern logistical challenge for the farmers from Leguan. Before the virus materialised, half-a-dozen ‘Canters’ would come to the island at least once weekly. The now-reduced ferry schedule, part of the COVID-19 restrictions, has seriously undermined the frequency of those visits. Sometimes an entire week goes by without a ferry docking at the island.
An inadequate ferry service has a further knock-on impact. It becomes more difficult to move farm produce to market. But that is not all. “Some of the farmers have stopped traveling to Parika for fear of contracting the virus and the two trucks that come from Linden to purchase cash crops haven’t been seen for the longest while. The boulanger and bora would remain on the trees and get hard,” Shameer laments.
The virus has hit the Leguan farming community hard. Shameer and his wife have watched their earnings reduce by “around sixty per cent” in recent months. The loss of income now puts a strain on his savings. Rice, he says, is not faring well. “The sector needs state intervention.”
Shameer says that in recent years, farming at Leguan has had its own fair share of frustrations. One of his recommendations is that the grant that used to be available to the Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) for farming infrastructure, particularly the maintenance of roads, and which, apparently, has been discontinued, must be restored if farming is to rise at Leguan again.
Cattle farming can bring a welcome windfall to the farmers at Leguan. During the ‘season’ that embraces the Festival of Eid, Leguan farmers sell around two hundred cows. One cow can fetch between $150,000 and $200,000! Once Eid passes it becomes a question of mostly waiting for the next opportunity.
On the island, two millers harvest and mill the farmers’ paddy. At current prices, the farmers are paid around $2,200 per bag. Rice prices these days are ‘nothing to write home about,’ Shameer says. Rice has other challenges too. During the harvesting season there is almost always a shortage of machines. That tends to snag the process. “There was a time when we would hire combines from Essequibo Coast. The unreliability of the ferry service makes that difficult these days.”
The Leguan farmer wants to see investments in Leguan and nearby communities that can generate business opportunities and jobs. He recalls that between the late 1980’s and mid-1990’s GuySuCo had established a cheese factory at Versailles and that the attendant increased demand for milk had led to significant investments (including his own) in cattle-rearing. The factory was eventually closed… apparently on account of technical issues and inadequate milk supplies. After that, Shameer switched to cattle for beef. Each cattle farmer on the island has set aside portions of abandoned rice lands for grazing pastures.
Hopes of an economic opportunity for Leguan had surfaced with the news that a plantain chip factory was to have been built on the island. The news sent farmers there scurrying into investments in plantain cultivation. Khan himself planted around three hundred plantains suckers. The project is yet to move and Shameer’s plantains, like his other cash crops, are now sold at the Parika Market. The building in which the factory was to be housed is completed and is reportedly ‘populated’ by equipment. Plantains are available. Still, there is no factory. This, Khan says, has been a symbol of disappointment to the farmers from Leguan whose investments in plantains had been undertaken in anticipation of a further investment opportunity. It would also have been an income-enhancing option for the farmers from Wakenaam, Hog Island and Fort Island, who had themselves begun to cultivate plantains in anticipation of the factory.
These days, Shameer Khan seeks, increasingly, to look beyond the constraints that have been imposed by the intervention of the coronavirus. He concedes that it has altered routines and affected earnings on the island. At Leguan, when, for whatever reason, farming interests are threatened, that amounts to a community. Still, for Shameer, it is about his family staying safe and riding out the challenge. Tomorrow is another day and there will still be work to be done.
Shameer offers a range of cash crops (bora, ochro, calaloo, pumpkin, squash, plantains, and cucumber) at his Leguan farm. He is prepared to work with vendors regarding arrangements for purchases, subject to availability. Shameer can be reached on telephone number 687-8719.
