Agriculture under the PNC was innovative

Jun 08, 2011 Letters

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Mr. Editor,
Hydar Ally in his letter KN 6/5/2011 “The politics of food” skillfully inserted misinformation for political advantage and misrepresented the PNC record on agriculture.
Reading his letter, one can surmise that Mr. Ally is an educated gentleman, with an axe to grind against the PNC. However, we would do everyone a disservice when we deliberately fail to tell the truth; and the truth is that agricultural policies and programmes under the PNC Government were innovative and timely.
Hydar Ally posits that the PNC agriculture policies were shortsighted; this I would like to correct so that our young readers and those with no memory of the PNC in government can know the truth.
Promoting national self reliance, the PNC development plan of 1972, crafted by Dr. Kenneth King, Minister of Economic Development, was based on the objective to feed, clothe and house the nation by 1976. This was an ambitious and lofty goal, but Forbes Burnham believed that it was achievable, and he and his party implemented programmes to achieve it.
Dr. Neville Trotz, head of the Institute of Science and Technology spearheaded the development of solar driers, experiments in alternative sources of energy like Bagasse from agro- waste, Kaolin for the manufacture of chalk, palm oil and organic dyes. The Guyana School of Agriculture research department experimented with various varieties of paddy, sugar cane, Mung and soy and Holstein cattle were imported to be integrated into the beef industry.
The Carnegie School of Home Economics experimented with rice and cassava flour, candied fruit such as Carambola (five fingers); fruit jams jellies, wines, the canning and drying of fish, curing of ham and bacon. The Sanata textile mill was established, a clay brick factory was opened and cotton production began at the GNS center at Kimbia on the Berbice River.
These were all programmes intended to move us as a nation from dependency to self reliance, to reduce imports and develop locally produced raw material into value added products. Burnham and the PNC believed that Guyanese were more than capable of producing some of the agricultural products that were imported.
Guyana, a country rich in agricultural potential; abundant land, rich, numerous rivers and a continental shelf filled with fish and shrimp; the government reasoned that there was no reason for us as a nation to be importing certain foods. One of the slogans at the time was “Buy local and produce local”.
In the spirit of the cooperative republic, agricultural co-ops were encouraged and an Agricultural bank was established to give farmers
the capital they needed to invest in agriculture.
Major investments were also made by the PNC Government that still supports the agricultural sector today.
The Mahaica Mahaicony Abary scheme, the Black Bush Polder and Tapacuma drainage and irrigation scheme were all developed under the PNC.
To make it easy for farmer to get their produce to markets in the cities, a network of coastal roads were built by the PNC from the Corentyne to Essequibo. The Demerara and Canje rivers were bridged, the Soesdke/Linden Highway was built and the river was bridged linking the communities of Linden and Wismar, making it easy for farmers in the riverain areas to increase their acreage, cultivate new products like pine apples and peppers along the highway, and get them easily to market.
The flour mill was commissioned and the Guyana Fisheries Corporation was established and began processing local seafood for local consumption and export (mixed fish could be purchased at $1 dollar per pound). The Guyana Defence Force and the Guyana National Service were major players in the government’s drive to self sufficiency.
The Army and GNS were self sufficient in poultry and eggs and many GNS centers like Kimbia sustained large acres of corn, black-eyed peas, strong brown cotton, white cotton, mull, soy, mung and ground provision. Many young Guyanese were given government scholarships to pursue training in veterinary science, and other agro-related subjects at Tuskegee University and the GSA.
To say that the PNC agricultural policy was shortsighted is not only myopic but blinding yourself on purpose to the facts. Yes, there were weaknesses and limitations, as in any extraordinary initiative.  Yes there was sabotage, strikes and interference by the some in the agriculture sector who were supporters of the opposition. Yes, many of the African supporters of the PNC did not take advantage of the opportunities for careers in farming; while the United States Government worked assiduously to destabilize the PNC government and kept us out of the CBI (Caribbean Basin Initiative).
The PNC 1973 development plan to feed, clothe and house the nation cannot be morally criticized. The infrastructure that was built to support agriculture like roads, bridges, dams and irrigation schemes were not shortsighted but innovative.
The concept to make a nation self-sufficient and self-reliant was not short-sighted but actually the essence of independence. Food as a weapon is intriguing but it was not employed in Guyana by the PNC; ask the farmers who got rich through legal farming and illegal trading.
Mark Archer

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