Dhaniram Ramchand’s pursuits in the world of agriculture take him beyond simply cultivating and marketing food. Apart from the Bath Settlement resident’s farm on which he cultivates bell peppers, tomato, celery, cauliflower, and broccoli he also runs a Plant Nursery that offers seedlings for cash crops and a facility offering plant treatment services. Trading under the name Green To Life Farm, Dhaniram is regarded as a key figure in ensuring the state of health of agriculture in his community.
Over time, he has enjoyed an important collaborative relationship with the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI), his farm having been used by the Institute in trials for the cultivation of broccoli and cauliflower. Dhaniram himself has touted these two vegetables as helpful to the building of the immune system and therefore an asset to the diet particularly at this time.
If you travel along the Bath Settlement road it would be hard to miss Dhaniram’s farm situated off the road, just next to his home. Over time, it has become a kind of ‘stop off’ station for persons with farming-relating inquiries or those interested in doing business with him.
The farm has been a fixture since 2008. It came as a natural progression from a decade as an Agriculture Extension Officer, visiting farms in Regions Five and Six offering advice and guidance on Best Practices. His last assignment before he retired was the offering of advice to farmers on shade house farming.
These days, Ramchand is immersed in the various disciplines associated with the welfare of agriculture. It is not surprising. Bath Settlement plays its own important role in coastal agriculture. When we spoke with Dhaniram earlier this week he told us that farmers in the community ‘export’ between four and five thousand pounds of eschellot to Georgetown every week. He made the point as though he considered it important that it be mentioned.
There was no point in time during which he could entirely escape his destiny with the land though full-time farming only became a pursuit after he had parted company with the Ministry of Agriculture. He chose shade house farming, he says, on account of the strategic advantage it offers to farmers seeking to maximize crop returns.
It has been, as well, a matter of transforming a passion into a business enterprise. In a community like Bath Settlement where the economy is heavily dependent on farming, offering timely advice and recommendations that can enhance the financial well-being of farmers can be a rewarding pursuit. That apart, Dhaniram’s own agricultural venture is also tied to commercial arrangements which he enjoys with the D. Singh Supermarket in Georgetown with which he supplies Bell Peppers. There are also other supply commitments that require him, to supply retailers with tomato, broccoli, cauliflower and celery.
Thankfully, Dhaniram’s mindfulness of the importance of good crop husbandry has meant the COVID-19 has had no discernable effect on the quality of his agricultural produce. Accordingly, he has been successful in sustaining his supply commitments that require him to furnish other buyers, including supermarkets with vegetables.
Significant increases in seedling sales for cash crops over the past five months have persuaded Dhaniram that the advent of COVID-19 has coincided with an increased local interest in agriculture. Using his own experience he says that while prior to five months ago he sold an average of a thousand seedlings per month, the volume of sales has now doubled. The majority of the buyers, he says, have come from Regions Five and Six and are predominantly Kitchen Garden adherents.
At the beginning of this year Dhaniram embarked on an aggressive promotion of the use of organic fertilizer, particularly in the rice farming sector. The focus emerged out of his increasing inquiry into the value which organic fertilizer adds to the quality of produce.
Like other farmers with whom the Stabroek Business has spoken in recent weeks Dhaniram Ramchand is persuaded that Guyana’s agricultural prowess separates the country from those that stand to be afflicted by serious food availability challenges linked to the impact of COVID-19. Moreover, he makes no secret of his own immense personal pride in the fact that he continues to make the contribution that he does at a time when it is needed.
Persons with interest in engaging Mr. Ramchand can reach him at 650-0425.
