For altogether understandable reasons, last Sunday’s usually widely popular Mocha Farmers Market was a shadow of its former self. On Sunday the farmers were returning to market following a protracted absence, the result of longstanding and seemingly complicated drainage challenges which, for many months, had left their farms flooded, putting a major part of their livelihoods on hold. Last Sunday’s return to market came only after protracted protestations, and eventually, the intervention of various agencies including the National Drainage & Irrigation Authority (NDIA) to address the drainage problems.
The earlier reported rendering of drainage canals had appeared sufficient to bring a measure of relief to the farmers and to at least realise sufficient produce to somewhat improve their circumstances and to make last Sunday’s Market Day possible. However, the recent days of heavy rainfall and the attendant drainage of lands in neighbouring communities have, once again, inundated the farmlands, evidence that official intervention has still not brought a lasting solution to the problem.
No more than a dozen farmers put in an appearance on Sunday, turning the event into a token gesture rather than the vibrant ‘show’ that the market used to be. The stalls that had been set out on Sunday were offering mostly plants, craft, and clothing, and chatter was mostly about the travails of an event that had once been the pride of the community. Conspicuously absent were the generous offerings of farm produce that had, over time, become the trademark of the event.
When you talk with the farmers they mostly bemoan the fact that what they believe is an altogether remediable drainage challenge has been neglected across political administrations. Since farming is essentially the livelihood of a great many members of the Mocha/Arcadia community, flooding and its consequences, which include loss of crops and livestock and inaccessibility to flooded farms, has become an important community issue. Part of the problem, some of the farmers say, reposes in the drainage of lands now populated by housing, some of which are close to the lands being cultivated by the Mocha farmers. The short explanation has to be with a seeming failure to drain those lands without leaving significant and apparently permanent deposits of water on the lands being cultivated by the Mocha farmers.
Over time a combination of frustration and loss of income have left the members of the community farming cooperative frustrated. The farmers are unequivocal in their view that the problem is altogether remediable and that the real issue is one of official indifference.
On Sunday, considerable insult was added to pre-existing injury on account of the inclement weather. Much of the frustration appeared to be birthed from the failure of the farmers, particularly, to ‘catch a break’ from what had been a protracted period of loss of income. The rains of the days immediately preceding Sunday’s Market, it seemed, had been sufficiently unrelenting to have caused some farmers to have to resort to boats to get to their farms. It seemed that much of what had been earmarked for Sunday’s Market Day, had been lost to the floodwaters. The logistics of the drainage and irrigation challenges that now appear to seriously threaten livelihoods are complex. On the whole much of it appears to have to do with increasing challenges associated with water flow in contiguous communities which, in recent years, have grown and which require more of those types of services. Mocha ‘suffers’, some of its residents claim, because the draining of water off other nearby populated lands means that much of that water is ‘dumped’ into Mocha and stays there.
Political intervention, as it usually does, has resulted in the customary flurry of activity and remedial undertakings that frequently do not translate into immediate-term solutions. This, the farmers say, has become the essence of their dilemma. They go further, asserting that their dilemma goes beyond being inconvenienced. It is a matter of livelihoods, they say. In these situations, they add, official responses are usually carefully choreographed and all too frequently take their own time before arriving at remedial conclusions.
To understand the dimensions of both economic and cultural attachment to ‘the land’ by many residents of the Mocha community, you have to listen to some of their individual stories.
On Sunday, 37-year-old Dillon Weeks, a cash crop farmer was in a melancholy mood. Dillon, an agriculturalist by profession, is in partnership with another farmer. His farming is done in the evenings and on weekends he packs his produce into a vehicle and sells in the Mocha/Arcadia community. A WhatsApp group which he shares with customers allows for an efficient order and delivery system. On account of last weekend’s deluge, Dillon says he lost thousands of dollars’ worth of produce… 3,000 head of lettuce, 400 cabbages and a quantity of thick leaf calaloo, hot peppers, broccoli, tomatoes, seasonings and boulanger. All told, that amounts to a few hundred thousand dollars in lost earnings.
Pamela Bowman runs a one-acre farm in the community. She cultivates cash crops, plantains and bananas. When the rains came she saved little. She had spent thousands of dollars in the process of returning to farming last August after the drainage issues that had caused the farmlands to be flooded had seemingly been resolved. Apart from marketing fresh produce, Pamela also dedicates some of her produce to agro-processing. Pepper sauces and achars are among her agro-produce. While Pamela is not persuaded that the destruction of the farms has broken her spirit, she says that she is currently giving consideration to whether she should now pursue cattle and poultry-rearing rather return to cash crop farming.
When cattle farmer, Mark Jaundoo, turned up at his farm on Saturday, prior to the staging of the Market Day, it had been completely submerged. Mark rears pigs, cows, sheep, goats, ducks, and chickens. “I was just standing there looking at the water for about an hour. Afterwards I called my wife and told her that everything was under water,” he said. Thereafter, he returning to watching his livestock trying to survive in the floodwaters. Up to last Sunday he had lost fourteen pigs, five sheep, five ducks, chickens, and a cow. When we spoke with him his immediate fear was that he would lose more cattle. He wanted more mobile pumps to be installed at the sluices along a section of the East Bank corridor to allow the land to drain more quickly. Chairman of the Mocha-Arcadia Multipurpose Cooperative Society (MAMPA), Raeburn Jones, and his wife, Shalleine, rear chickens and manufacture chicken ham. Prior to the floods of 2020 Jones and his wife had also cultivated sweet potato, cassava, and plantain, and sold these to vendors in the Stabroek and Bourda markets. After he had lost large quantities of produce to the floods he had quit. However, 18 months later he had returned. A week ago he had planted 500 cabbage plants and as we spoke they were under water. Jones said that he could not bear to look at what had been left of his farm after the deluge.
Jones is of the view that state agencies undertaking assignments in the community that have drainage and irrigation implications must “sit down” with NDIA to thrash out the implications of their undertakings before work begins. Here, he appeared to be implying that the prevailing flooding travails that are affecting the Mocha community, more particularly its farmers, is in large measure, a function of the surfeit of development works, including drainage and irrigation works, that are occurring in neighbouring communities and the impact that they are having on Mocha’s present challenges.
He believes, he says, that a regime of more effective communication between the respective contractors and the NDIA can help avert some of the challenges that Mocha frequently faces. He said that he was restating a point which he had made during a community meeting back in September at which President Irfaan Ali was present. At that time, he said, he had recommended that mobile pumps be installed at the sluices along the East Bank corridor to take account of the ever growing drainage and irrigation demands of growing communities.
Reginald Jones, a Mocha resident, had re-migrated to Guyana with an ambitious plan to cultivate fruit and vegetables which he had duly launched in 2015. The floods of 2020 had decimated his crops save and except for some banana suckers and citrus trees. He began replanting in August but last week found him wading knee deep in floodwaters. His citrus plants were deluged up to their leaves.
Another re-migrant and Mocha resident, Lorrick De Mattos, had gone into cattle farming on his return home. He had spent a number of years working in the United States as an Environmental Officer. These days he rears goats and cows and cultivates soursop, citrus, and coconuts, among other fruits. On Sunday Lorrick told the Stabroek Business that he had built a farmhouse and invested “millions of dollars” developing pasture lands for his cattle. He had made a further investment in raising the level of the pasture area and create a drainage system in order to guard against flooding. On Sunday both the pasture that had cost him so much to develop was submerged while the penned cattle were knee deep in water. Before we spoke he had moved his cows and goats close to his own living area. Already, an absence of grass was resulting in them visibly losing weight.
On Sunday, his preoccupation with his animals meant that he could not participate in the Market Day. However, he plans to market live animals during the days leading up to Christmas Day.
Lloyd Mc Pherson too had plans to participate in last Sunday’s Market Day. He cultivates fruit and vegetables. After the floods of 2020 he had gone in search of alternative employment. He conceded, however, that he couldn’t stay away from the land. On Sunday his farm, too, had been deluged.
Nor had the earlier heavy rains deterred Barbara Joyce of Barbara’s Homemade Delights. Her offerings included a mixture of preserved fruit and ‘dips’ created from avocado, homemade wines, tomato and pumpkin jams and jellies, as well as honey mustard sauces and juices. She praises the responses she has received from her social media marketing though she was keeping her fingers crossed for a successful Market Day, the weather notwithstanding.
Then there was Annie, a ‘fixture’ at these events with her pepper sauce, green seasonings and onion and dunks pickles. Through her pursuits she provides a market for farmers from the community. Of late, the impact of flooding on the availability of fruit and vegetables had compelled her to look elsewhere for her raw materials.
On Sunday there was a discernable feeling of uneasiness amongst the ‘vendors’ who make no secret of their concern that official intervention to respond to the flooding crisis and its impact on their livelihoods had, over the years, been ponderous, to say the least. Official visits by high-level officials are one thing, an agro-processor told the Stabroek Business. She added, however, that as far as the flooding situation was concerned a far greater sense of urgency was needed in the official approach to investing resources in fixing the problems so that the hard-working residents of the community could “get on with their lives.”
