The neglect of the dairy farmers has destroyed the livestock industry

Apr 14, 2013 Letters

Dear Editor,
In January 2010, at the launch of the Agriculture Export Diversification Programme at the Guyana School of Agriculture, the then Agriculture Minister, Mr. Robert Persaud said “The ship for transforming the livestock sector is leaving the port.” In his wisdom, Mr. Persaud said in three years we shall “acquire land in the intermediate savannahs, the left Bank of the Abary River, 7,000 acres on the Corentyne and vast areas in Region Nine” to become a “a lead exporter in beef and dairy products in the Caribbean.”
In the same month of January 2010, Minister Irfaan Ali, in defence of his colleague in Parliament for the passage of the Guyana Livestock Development Authority Bill, boasted that “this is a promise of his party to the people” and his party will “capitalize on the CARICOM food market.” Very good plans, but they were only broken promises by the PPP cabal that seemed bent on spreading propaganda thus denying the dairy farmers a decent living.
Well, these three years have come and gone and the amount of beef and dairy cattle produced in Guyana today is actually less than it was three years ago. The export of beef and dairy products to the Caribbean as promised by the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal never took off, no land was acquired and the ship that Minister Robert Persaud said was leaving the port had such a big hole that it sank before even leaving the port. In other words, it is normal for Robert Persaud and his PPP cabal to spread propaganda in an effort to deceive the people that they are working on their behalf and in their interest, but the facts show otherwise. The Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal continues to oppress the diary farmers and the working class by refusing to give them a 10% across the board increase to cope with the inflationary food and commodity prices.
Since then, not one word is mentioned in the budget by the Minister of Finance or the irrational Irfaan Ali about the beef and dairy cattle industry. Dairy, cattle, sheep and goat farmers all over Guyana are struggling to get lands for pastures, as they continue to be neglected by this Jagdeo/Ramotar Government.
Rustling is now rampant, resulting in a depletion of stock and the technology in the industry remains primitive from the last century, the quality of the breeding program is negligible compared to what Minister Persaud and the PPP regime promised the farmers in 2010.
They promised the farmers a G$206 million state of the art international abattoir three years ago and what did the farmers get – ZERO!
All of it fell on deaf ears since not one word was mentioned on the dairy industry, the swine industry, beef cattle, chicken or the small ruminant industries in this 2013 Budget or in other previous budgets.
If these industries can be approached correctly, they can create thousands of new jobs for our young people and even retired rural folks and provide them with stable income for the rest of their lives. This should be the goal of the PPP cabal if they are to regain the trust and confidence of the farmers. But to make promises and not fulfill them is not only deceitful but also dishonest to say the least.
Today, the corrupt Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal regime has abandoned the farmers of Guyana for their wealthy business buddies. All that matters to this cabal is the Chinese contractors, the Kingston Hotel, the Specialty Hospital, the airport expansion, and all the other schemes on which the financial kickbacks are significant to the political beneficiaries.
The old people say every long rope has an end. Proverbs 22:16 said “Whoever oppresses the poor to increase his own wealth, or gives to the rich, will only come to poverty.” The cabal should heed this warning and do the right thing for the people of Guyana and not for themselves, relatives and cronies.
Dr. Asquith Rose and Harish S. Singh.

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The neglect of the dairy farmers has destroyed the livestock industry

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