Dear Editor,
“Country air indeed clears the mind and invigorates the body” Bridgerton S2:E3. As a West Berbician, I became elated upon reading the contents of your on-line lead article of March 28 captioned “President launches major black belly sheep project – says Region 5 to become livestock capital”. I have often stated that residents of West Coast Berbice (Abary to Ithaca), taken as a multiple village movement, are about the hardest working, most resilient, courteous, respectful, community spirited and agriculturally committed grouping of Guyanese. They also possess and/or have access to large swathes of arable ancestral lands from crown dam to sea shore; available for productive use without major infrastructural investment. I am also heartened over the announcement because, once properly implemented, the outcome would be a strident signal, illuminating a pathway to satisfy my craving for the winds of economic and social growth. It would reveal a starters flag transporting relief for those chomping at the bit, and interchange for an appreciative arousal of their appetite to move forward at a blistering developmental pace. Consequently, the land that time appeared to have forgotten could be morphed into a territory of persistent prosperity.
Ironically, despite having devotedly responded to policy initiatives of successive governments designed to improve the citizenry since pre-independence, the sad unfortunate reality of West Berbicians is littered by unbearable underemployment prospects. This malady has led to a rapid decline of self-generating income opportunities which triggered large scale migration in search of employment, education and skills training. To illustrate further, allow me to draw attention to some historical developments and societal disclosures. The Demerara-Berbice public railway system was finally dismantled in 1972. In pursuit of Guyana’s ‘Feed the nation by 1976’ program, farmers in West Berbice were encouraged to cultivate lands and establish farmsteads with non-permanent crops on the railway embankment. Several farmsteads flourished as a result. Simultaneously, a policy decision was taken to provide provisional land leases for descendants of village proprietors to cultivate crown lands at the second and third depths unto the Abary River, some lands averaged hundreds of acres in each designated village. For example, at Pln. Ayr No. 40 Village, the available acreage was close to 500. The Cooperative model was the chosen vehicle to make this aspiration a reality.
As a consequence, Producer type (communal) rice cooperatives were rapidly established in several villages. Between 1973 and the end of the decade new societies were registered at No.3, No.5, No. 8, No. 9, No. 28, Lichfield, No. 40, Seafield (No. 42) and Eldorado villages. These supplemented previously registered land type (individual holding) rice cooperatives at Hope and Experiment, Bath Settle-ment, Hopetown Land later Hopetown Multipurpose thus stimulating a relatively short lived (agrarian revolution) which benefitted thousands and improved village economies. Other types of cooperatives were introduced or revitalized to support the ‘feed ourselves’ trust. They included machinery, swine and other livestock cooperatives. When a ban was imposed on the importation of onion, residents of Bath Settlement converted land space in their yard into large income shallot gardens which collectively transferred the fortunes of the village and nearby communities. In all of these initiatives, West Berbicians unreservedly applied themselves with great gusto.
Some of the contributing factors to a generational litany of worrisome woes include: post construction abandonment of intended social underpinnings associated with Mahaica Mahaicony Abary-Agricultural Development Authority (MMA-ADA) Project (which a national leader once asserted will be dug even by our fingernails) – this thwarted the anticipated accompanying boom in agricultural uptake. In addition, scaling down of the sugar industry; closure of Guyana Marketing Corporation and GAIBANK; whittling away of the Mahaicony Abary Rice Development Scheme (MARDS); decline of thriving cooperative societies, community development projects and cottage industries led to several communities within the agriculture base sub region of West Berbice shifting into ‘mark time’ mode. This black belly sheep production plan is not the first largescale livestock project that would have been mulled for West Berbice. I recall in the mid-seventies the state, with support from the donor community, sponsored a cooperative swine multiplying unit aback Hopetown village. It was intended as a pilot project to be replicated by other regions to provide input for the ham and bacon plant at Farm, East Bank Demerara.
Editor, Guyana is currently meandering uncharted prosperous petroleum waters. Few vestiges of the agricultural ‘glory days’ are evident in rural communities. Many studies, which I will not elaborate on here, have sought to provide answers for the failure to take flight. Some have even advanced a theory that the government of the time practiced a policy of racial dominance of one ethnic group over others (sound familiar?) which led to this sorry state of affairs. Many proponents of that line of reasoning have chosen to gloss over the fact that Guyana faced the full downside of an international oil crisis which triggered massive economic hardships; and also the reality that our fledging nation was brutishly caught in a Cold War between East and West. I believe that the indomitable industrious spirit of the West Berbicians will propel them to enthusiastically clasp the boundless opportunities which will result from a state sponsored development program designed to establish agricultural projects with appropriate linkages to an Agro Industrial Complex; thus propelling Region Five to become the agricultural capital of Guyana. Of course, once taking on board lessons learned from previous stillborn and non- sustainable agricultural development efforts. Editor, it’s in context of the foregoing, I wish to applaud the recent ‘Onverwagt Declaration’.
Sincerely,
Derrick Cummings
