Enterprising farmer, Ramlakhan Dhookie, is a ‘Special Person’

Jul 27, 2014 News

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“I find it very, very accommodating. I love a challenge. Farming is my first love. I don’t just do it for the profits or benefits; I do it because there is a desire. I do it to the best of my ability. It has been my mainstay for the past 26 years. I wouldn’t give it up for the world.”

By Leon Suseran
“I find it very, very accommodating. I love a challenge. Farming is my first love. I don’t just do it for the profits or benefits; I do it because there is a desire.”

The words of Macaw Village, East Bank Berbice (EBB) resident Ramlakhan Dhookie, who has farming in his blood. Farming has passed through several generations in the family. His parents, grandparents (Chowtie Singh, Chan, Bassie and Sundar); great grandparents (Bala Raja and Sanchari) and even great, great grandparents, migrants from India, were all engaged in farming for their livelihood.
He has been in the cash-crop farming business for over 25 years, seeing the importance of agriculture and its ability to provide upward mobility for Guyanese families. Also, when many families had chosen to migrate from the far-flung East Bank Berbice corridor over the years to access more facilities and a better life in urban settings, he and his family opted to stay, develop the land there, and make a living for themselves.

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION
He was born at Ma Retraite Scheme, East Bank Berbice to farmers, Dhookie and Bramzo. Farming was the thing back then, as he described. “It was the only thing you knew. You go to school; help mommy and daddy in the farm or garden or cow pen or fowl pen…In the morning before you went to school, you did certain chores; taking out the cows to graze, and actually every morning you reached late for school— those days were flogging— you had two lines— the ‘late’ line and ‘normal’ lines.”
Almost every day, young Ramlakhan was in the ‘late’ line where he received a sound flogging. He attended the Schepmoed Primary School where he wrote the Common Entrance Exams and did very well in 1975 and was awarded a place at the newly-opened New Amsterdam Multilateral School (NAMS). However, he reflected, the financial situation ultimately had the last say.
He continued at Schepmoed School and wrote exams again the following year, and was awarded a place at Berbice High, “and the same scenario— lack of transportation and place to stay outside, then he (his father) had seven of us to feed.”

But on this occasion his paternal Grandmother who resided at Black Bush Polder, “came forcibly and took me away from him (father) to Black Bush and made sure I attended the Berbice Educational Institute (BEI).” He found it difficult to adapt to surroundings.
“For instance, the food, the clothes, the way we used to talk; the way we used to socialize and mingle— people were totally different. I, who was accustomed to greens and provisions, had to opt for the bread and biscuits for breakfast, and even chowmein. We were not accustomed to those things as ‘country children’, and it was a long and hard struggle.”
After writing his CXC Exams and not being comfortable with life in the town, Ramlakhan decided to return home. The family then moved to Macaw, some 7 miles from Mara, the farthest village along the East Bank Berbice corridor.

SWITCHING JOBS
At age 18, in 1981, he applied and was accepted for a teaching job at Schepmoed Primary, where he only taught for three weeks.
“Working for $295 per month…when I compared that with what I earned in my parents’ garden, I quit the teaching job; I said it was not worth it.”
He worked for a while in his parents’ garden, but then moved to Georgetown where he started to work as a Sales Agent for Demerara Mutual Life Insurance; a job he held on to for six months. He then returned to Berbice and continued to work on the farm. He described those years after high school as years, “where I was never comfortable”, moving from one job to the next. He found some sort of peace of mind going back home, “I was so relaxed and comfortable.”

Dhookie then pledged to embark on a life-long career in the farming business in 1989. He needed equipment and the land needed preparation. He got married during that time to his love, Radica, and “we didn’t have a home; didn’t have equipment or a piece of land to do farming.”
The budding farmer
He worked for a while with his parents on their individual farms – two days with his mother and two days with his father, earning $20 per day. Eventually being granted land by his father, and wanting to branch off on his own now, Dhookie started up his farming business on a very small scale at first. It was not easy starting up.
“Basically, the ideas were there, because I did Agricultural Science in school and was a top student in that subject. The practical (skill) was there and added to the academics, I put the two together and it ‘meshed’ perfectly.”
He also received motivation and assistance from the Ministry of Agriculture back then, particularly his mentor, Mr. Martin Lopez of Caribbean Chemicals. “He was like a guide, you know, we developed a good relationship.”
He then started to employ persons to assist him on the farm which grew in operations from year to year. Among the first crops planted were beans and pepper. He would later branch off into other crop varieties.
“I always tell people that it was beans that put me on my foot— it was a ‘poor man’s crop’, there wasn’t much input or diseases; it’s a cheap crop and you make some money.”
It took Dhookie at least 15 years to ‘level off’ his earnings and spending, and to be independent and self- reliant.
“Farming put me on my foot— of course. With God’s grace, I ended up doing farming and was able to support my three kids. They are now big and well-employed.
“Farming is a natural way of life. It’s a decent way of life; an honest way of life…and it can make you an individual with some sort of dignity– you put in and you get out. You are independent, you are free, there is no boss for you—[you are] free to make decisions and if you fail, you try again; [there is] nobody to ridicule or penalize you, and you learn as you go.”

CHALLENGES AND CONCERNS
Ramlakhan has encountered challenges, especially as it relates to the marketing system.
“It’s a mess. Right now, I have produce in the backdam and I just can’t find adequate market for them. Yes, people might say they have market— but the prices do not make sense!”

Additionally, the poorly-managed drainage and irrigation system along the East Bank of Berbice poses another concern for the veteran farmer.
“Most of the local authorities who have to manage these projects, they manage poorly. I do not want to get into specifics because it is a ticklish situation and when you make comments, people hold them against you.”
And of course, the access road to Mara is in a deplorable state. Dhookie stated that ever since he was a boy, many promises have been made for building a new road, but it never materialized, even now when he is much, much older.
“It has become like an old, worn-out eyesore. There are plans for a new road. When I see the road, then I will say, ‘Yes’, we get a road.”

EAT LOCAL
Dhookie also used the interview to urge Guyanese consumers to eat more locally-produced foods. “What I find when I go into the markets, there are more foreign produce than the local ones. The cost of production needs to be reduced drastically so that local farmers can venture into producing value- added products, thus matching up to foreign products, and increasing the competition.”
When asked if he had experienced significant losses over the years, Dhookie stated that apart from several instances of flash-flooding, there has not been much damage to crops.

FARMER DHOOKIE AND HIS ‘ROCK’
Our ‘Special Person’ undertakes over fifteen acres of farm land today, ten of which are under citrus (lime, lemon, tangerines, oranges, mangerines (a cross of mandarin oranges with tangerines) cultivation. Watermelon, pumpkin, ground provisions and a few greens take up the remaining five acres, with hundreds of trees.

As could be expected, a day for the Dhookie family starts very, very early – when most of us are in dreamland. His strongest support is his wife, Radica, who wakes up around 3 o’clock and prepares breakfast. “When I get up at five o’clock, breakfast is on the table and then I hit the backdam— whatsoever is there to do, weed, clean, plough, I do it.”
He works until 11 o’clock and returns home for lunch. “I relax and have a ‘siesta’ time from midday to two ‘o clock— maybe if you have any minor chores at home, you help. Then you hit the backdam again at 2 o’clock and come out until seven in the night. It’s a day-after-day routine—you don’t have a Christmas Day or a Sunday.”
Harvesting, he revealed, is done over a period of two days, after which the produce is brought out from the backdam and graded. Packing is done according to the amount of customers that they have, after which the produce is taken to the New Amsterdam and Bourda Markets and sold on a wholesale basis.
He describes his wife as the “mainstay in my home and on the farm…she is the rock and foundation!” Mrs. Dhookie handles the financial aspect of the business.

THE FUTURE
When asked whether his children would continue along his footsteps, Mr. Dhookie was not so convinced.
“To be honest, I don’t see that happening, because most of the youngsters now, they don’t want to go into the fields and backdam; they want these white-collar jobs and technological lives. But that’s their choice I guess. I am hoping that the future generations, like my grandchildren, will endeavour to practice the farming way of life.”
He and his wife have three children: Sanjay, Mona Lisa and Marie.
“I made a very special effort to send them to high school and I embedded in them that education is a must. I also believe that I have a duty to stay and develop my country, because foreigners would not do it. People might say it’s hard, but I don’t know any ‘softer’ place. I do what I do to the best of my ability, and that is farming. It has been my mainstay for the past 26 years. I wouldn’t give it up for the world.”

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