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Wismar farmer losing crops to accouri invasion
“The accouri (agouti) here are college educated, they don’t eat the wild eddoes and so on anymore, they eat eddoes, dasheen and dried coconuts, but their favorite is cassava and sweet potatoes..” – Owen De Souza
A Block 22, Wismar farmer is waging what he fears may be a losing battle to save his crops from a relentless army of elusive, four-legged thieves.
Owen De Souza, who cultivates mainly root crops on his ten-acre farm, is being outwitted and outnumbered by scores of accouris, also called agoutis, which have been devouring his produce.
The prolific farmer has been cultivating in a valley as well as the surrounding hillsides for the past 23 years. But the animals have wreaked so much havoc with his crops, that he no longer produces cash crops, which has severely restricted his earning power.
This he notes is really a sad state of affairs, considering all the emphasis that the Government places on agriculture.
The de souzas in front of their farm
Distraught, De Souza recalls the days when the surrounding hillsides resembled a lush green carpet with all the vegetables he was cultivating.
Now there he only cultivates dasheen, eddoes, plantains bananas and coconuts; but even those, the animals seem bent on destroying. The hillsides are now barren, with only the undulating terrain indicating the beds that were once lush with vegetables.
“The accouri (agouti) here are college educated, they don’t eat the wild eddoes and so on anymore, they eat eddoes, dasheen and dried coconuts, but their favorite is cassava and sweet potatoes.’
In fact, some members of a rampaging rodent clan could be seen roaming boldly on Mr. De Souza’s farm, even as he spoke with Kaieteur News.
Eight and fifteen pound eddoes
During a brief tour of his vast farm, De Souza dug out a huge eddo which weighed at least twelve pounds and a dasheen which weighed about four pounds, from the valley where he cultivates them.
He proudly declared that he uses no artificial fertilizer, but the provisions grow to massive proportions because of the swampland where they’re cultivated.
Yet De Souza is not happy as he has been battling the four legged thieves for years now.
Voicing his frustration, he said that he has applied for a firearm, for several years now to rid his farm of the accouri menace, but is yet to get a positive response.
According to him, he is being given the ‘royal runaround’.
So he continues to suffer the devastating effects of the animals plundering his farm to their hearts’ content.
He is even more saddened by the fact that he chose to return to Guyana with his family because of his love of the land.
De Souza was somehow able to convince his wife Louise, who had already lived in North America for more than two decades, to return home to Guyana with him, so they could do what he loves best- farming.
Once back home they created an oasis out of what was once a jungle.
They embarked on a mission to help feed the nation, by plugging millions into their farming project.
Soon the De Souzas had 700 coconut trees, two hundred sour-sop plants, 200 pear trees, ground provisions and numerous plantain and banana suckers under cultivation. Other crops such as cherries were cultivated on a smaller scale.
The family has produced pears so prolifically over the years, that De Souza is known to his many customers as “ pear man”.
Out of his vast resources De Souza was able to send a truck and minibus load of provisions to help feed residents on the East Coast of Demerara during the devastating 2005 floods.
He is therefore appealing to those in authority to assist him urgently in acquiring a firearm, to rid his farm of the amour invasion.
“This thing is really frustrating, and it’s not me alone- a lot of people in this area suffering this amour menace. These animals just eating out people crops, and a few persons get so fed up, they just chucked everything and went into the interior, a few of them even got malaria and died!”
Mr. De Souza said that he is presently at his wits end, but even so he’s not prepared to give up farming, as it is his life.
(Enid Joaquin)
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