More than half a century after the commissioning of the roughly 45-mile Soesdyke-Linden Highway, the vast expanse of land that sits off its shoulder is still to fulfill the purpose for which it had been designated. The construction of the highway and the attendant opening up of the adjoining lands occurred at a time when the invention of slogans associated with expanding the agricultural sector were politically fashionable. So that the lands adjoining the newly built highway were not only intended to provide more home-owning options for Guyanese dwelling in less than convivial circumstances in various other parts of the coast, but also to open up a new agro-industrial frontier that would add another string to the bow of the country’s economy. Up until now the dream remains as far as ever from reality.
Those lands, however, have at least provided a more than worthwhile offering. Several of the early settlers are, today, not just home-owners, but can also lay claim to a fair measure of success in economic pursuits that include agriculture and agro-processing.
Bamia sits off a strip of the Soesdyke-Linden Highway about a five-minute drive outside of Linden. It is a modest farming community, never mind the fact that the limitations of its agricultural pursuits are not difficult to discern. The sheer vastness as well as the topography of the land favours agriculture. Indeed, in the context of the contemporary food security ‘noises’ being made across the region, Bamia is one of those locations that might even have been integral to that Caribbean dream. These days, after several decades, the community remains inadequately developed, its potential strangled by the fact that, on the whole, its present occupants simply lack the resources to develop the community.
Fifty-nine-year-old McKinnon Adrian and his family moved to Bamia from Moraikobai in the Mahaicony River after the death of one of his sons. There are few alternatives to farming here and the Adrians had come prepared to work hard. Apart from what he earns from the returns from the expanse of land which he farms close to his home, McKinnon also does community-enhancing jobs in the area where he lives.
It would be straining credulity to describe Bamia as a thriving family community. The land is tough and demands a considerable physical effort for the return that it yields. There are no hi-tech tools here. Moving water to his farm requires McKinnon to negotiate a hilly area. Then there are the pests that pose a constant threat to his crops. When you contemplate the largely labour intensive nature of farming at Bamia, you cannot help but wonder whether, at 59, the sheer physical effort of keeping his small form going with limited help and the virtual non-existence of technological support, the sheer strain will not, sooner rather than later, break him.
On Saturday, however, McKinnon appeared in fine fettle. When we got there he was digging away at a piece of land that appeared to be offering a fair measure of resistance to his efforts. Perhaps surprisingly, his countenance bore that expression of instinctive welcome and friendliness. He appeared at peace with himself.
His wife, Shenella, he says, is a pillar of support. His daughter attends secondary school in Linden. On school days he would walk her from home to the shoulder of the highway to get a bus to school in Linden. McKinnon’s is by no means a completely secure existence. The land that he farms is owned by a family friend and up to this time he is permitted to use it.
Moraikobai is behind him now. Over the fifteen years that he lived there he served on the community’s Village Council. He also served as Boat Captain for the vessel on which residents depend to take them in and out of the community. Bamia offers himself and his family a different life. The land he cultivates, five acres, yields sweet and bitter cassava, tomato, watermelon, pepper, pineapple and calaloo. These are sold to buyers in Linden at the community Market Day, every third Friday. Business with Linden, he says, is good.
He places the highest priority on his daughter’s education. With classroom tuition suspended on account of the Covid-19 pandemic, he now takes her to the community internet hub to allow for her participation in online classes.
His farming pursuits are not without their challenges. Wild animals, particularly deer and agouti, are known to forage his farm frequently. Raids by acoushi ants sometimes devastate the leaves of his pepper trees. These are among the occupational hazards of farming on lands where agriculture-related support is strictly limited. At Bamia, water and electricity supply disruptions are the bane of the community’s existence. An absence of water puts McKinnon’s crops at risk. He gets his water from a nearby creek. With the ‘clearance’ of the owners of the land, McKinnon plans to extend the spread by an additional two acres. The lack of land-clearing equipment is an impediment. Support from government in this regard would mean a great deal to this determined farmer. If that is not forthcoming he must apply his axe and cutlass. “Whenever I use the axe and cutlass I have to rest my shoulder for a week,” he says.
Some help has been forthcoming from the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) in the form of tools and seeds. But that is not enough. Significant increases in farm yield and in the earning power of the farmers at Moraikobai can only come about through significant state support with tools designed to reduce the physical effort required to pursue farming efficiently.
Recently, the Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC) visited Bamia and undertook to provide training in farming methods, agro-processing, and marketing. The GMC, he says, has also been seeking to grow community interest in the formation of a Women’s Group at Bamia that can support its agricultural and agro-processing pursuits by planning and, executing Community Market Days. That, McKinnon believes, ought to be a step in the right direction for the community.
Tough times have imbued McKinnon and Shenella with a spirit of enterprise. The family is preparing for their first ever excursion into agro-processing. They have set a timeline of “early next year” to put Shenella’s cassava bread on the local market… shops and supermarkets being their prime target. That would require an investment and that, they say, is beyond their reach at this time. It wouldn’t hurt, one feels, for the Small Business Bureau (SBB) or even a commercial bank to have a conversation with the Adrians… with due haste.
