Accelerated Agriculture Development – an ocean of possibility in Guyana

Nov 30, 2017 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
Over the past few months, I have read a number of articles in the daily newspapers connected to Agriculture in Guyana. I was very impressed with that in KN of 24th August 2017 dealing with the subject of: ‘Why isn’t agriculture in STEM’. The other which gained my rapt attention was the editorial in SN of 25th August 2017 titled: ‘Agricultural policy needed’.
Now, Editor, despite the fact that all of the articles are relevant to the present woes in the development of agriculture in Guyana, this wider development must be the result of a lack of progress in this field going back as far as four score years.
During World War II 1939-45, there was a sign on the zinc fence of the T&HD shunting yard at High & Lamaha Sts, which read ‘Grow More Food’ under which there was a picture of a soldier with an agricultural fork over his shoulder. The message being conveyed was a direct result of the havoc which the German U-Boats were wreaking on the Atlantic shipping lanes resulting in a number of allied merchant ships being sent to the bottom. Hence there was marked decline in the landing of basic food items in Georgetown.
A number of us resorted to roasting our plantains under the coal pot or the more fortunate in their Dover stoves. Plantains eddoes and yams replaced to a great extent, Irish/English potatoes – a staple input to our diet.
A subsequent effort at import substitution was made during the life of the Feed, Clothe and House (FCH) thrust in the 1970s started during the Burnham regime. Some success was achieved, in that we no longer had to rely on the Canadian Challenger and Canadian Cruiser ships to bring us cabbage from Canada. Passion fruit and green ginger were also introduced and grown in quantities to meet local market demand.
It means that from 1939 to 2017, a period of seventy-odd years in an area encompassing 83,000 square miles with varied elevations and temperatures – only three new items of now described Non-traditional crops have been propagated in commercial quantities in Guyana.
Editor, may I ask what are the legacies in this regard of the previous governments and Ministers of Agriculture with regard to food import substitution? Where can we find the evidence of initiatives taken in the years between the much vaunted Mittelholzer, Irish/English potato pursuit at Kato in the early 1970s and the PROPEL experiment in 2016/17 at Moblissa and other sites.
Why is it only now determined that onions and potatoes and recently turmeric, which we spent millions of dollars in scarce foreign currency to import, could now be commercially grown in locations in Guyana.
I can only conclude that there was a countrywide scheme involving certain rapacious people in British Guiana/Guyana to sabotage any effort to grow certain food items because it suited their financial wellbeing to have them imported. Those ranged from merchants and commission agents to the top of officialdom. I suspect that it was the reason that the continued existence of the 4H clubs where our youths were exposed to the basics of Agriculture, among other skills contributory to a rounded education, was undermined and terminated. It is absolutely necessary that it be revived with urgency. Time is not on our side.
The 4H emblem which represented the development of Head, Heart, Hand and Health, is that of an organization which attracts international visibility. It is famous for exposing children as young as 8-9 years to the benefits which accrue in a career in agriculture. In addition to the STEM elements, it encourages interest in Business, Citizenship, Environment, Outdoor Science, Creative Arts and Professional development.
Exchange visits to the USA by foreign 4H club members are facilitated to afford an insight to modern technology, especially in agriculture and animal husbandry. Our youth in Guyana need to be impressed upon at an early age of the relevance of PH to the Agricultural Science, and not merely the input of animal manure, and be told that “one has a ‘good hand’.
If global warming is a fact of life, we have to prepare for the inundation of our coastline where most of our agricultural activity is concentrated. In this regard, there has to be a serious foray into the lands at least 25 miles from the coastline, and the Brasilia example is not without merit.
In harking back to the days of the FCH programme Guyana was there in the forefront of the Third World anti-apartheid battle. It contributed scarce financial as well as human resources to a number of countries in Southern Africa which are now leaders on the world stage in various aspects of agriculture.
To the extent that LFS Burnham was posthumously considered for an Oliver R Tambo award speaks volumes. He must have done something good! Well, it is now ‘PAYBACK TIME’. Bodies like ACDA, PANAF and our Foreign Service Diplomats should be in the vanguard of soliciting a transfer of technology to Guyana in all aspects of Agriculture where African and other countries are excelling.
As reported in a recent TIME Magazine 25 year old, Linda Mugaruka says ‘we will make sure that when people hear the word Congo, they will think of coffee not war’. She is a one of only a handful of cuppers or tasters in the Congo and the only woman.
There is a salient aspect of our present development in Agriculture as it relates to the near future and the impact of the approaching fossil fuel bonanza which is the talk of the town.
The impact of this treasure trove has not been fully debated and understood. My economics teacher at BGET, Mr Randolph Cheeks, when I was studying Croome’s economics for Senior Cambridge, drummed it into our ears that ‘an increase in money without a corresponding increase in the amount of goods and services leads to inflation’.
He used the example of what happens to the cost of living in a village of ten (10) persons who have $100.00 to purchase an available one (1) dozen eggs and what is the result when they acquire $500.00 and only the same amount of eggs were available for sale.
The Minister of Finance raised the dire situation in October 2017 with regards to the sloth in the implementation of the PSIP and to the dearth of human resources. There is no doubt that without serious vision and implementation of a positive direction change, my early exposure to rudimentary economics tells me that we are ‘looking down the barrel of a ‘money chasing goods’ scenario. A revaluation of our currency will not assuage the economic debacle.
Some months ago I saw a photograph in the Guyana Chronicle of an oxcart at Nappi village. I wondered then to what extent draft animals are being utilized in rural areas in the conduct of farming, and if their extended use was ever considered by officers of the Ministry of Agriculture. They are being used extensively in Uganda and Amish counties in the USA. Their varied use in many aspects of farming is on show at Agriculture exhibitions with the attachments for ploughing, tilling, seeding and watering.
They are an alternative tool for the small farmer who would not need to stretch his meager resources to purchase a mechanical machine at great cost. They are very functional in small to medium size homestead acreage.
An important input to the Agriculture Sector is the dissemination of information attached to sensitizing farmers about relevant modern practices and inputs. Our audio and visual media are bereft of adequate coverage and time apportioned to Agriculture activities and leading to a professional and aggressive commitment. There needs to be more time and technical content devoted to this activity in the media both at the centre and in the regions.
When I read recently about the acquisition of some automatic weather stations, I wondered if the sharing of present and significant meteorological information or forecast would be facilitated with the derived information. For instance, how would commuters between Linden and Georgetown be alerted to the impending presence of smog/fog which is a hazard to safe driving and which phenomena could result in multivehicle pile-ups?
In addition, how wide and expeditiously would the public be notified of a significant drop in the atmospheric pressure in any area and what sort of weather phenomena are trending to positively or adversely affect a stage of cultivation or buildings.
There is a lot of hype attached to our yearly and other exhibitions at Sophia and elsewhere in the Regions. I have progressively been taken aback by the paucity of new varied Agri-based products being put on exhibit. This time in 2017 is not one to gloat over sugar cake or a large dried coconut.
Why is an entity like the Carnegie School of Home Economics not visible and showcasing various cheeses, ham, sausages, yogurts and other products, the inputs for which are available in whatever quantities in Guyana? The fact that government has dastardly refused to be a catalyst in directly facilitating the importation of various types and sizes of glass bottles has in some measure constrained the movement of cottage industries – not to mention the holding of canning workshops in the Regions for food preservation.
There is a dearth of evidence at those exhibitions where trophies, plaques or even ribbons are awarded to exhibitors for excellence or just mere participation. Where are the inputs from organizations like the YMCA and YWCA? Where are the products from school gardens? What part does livestock judging contest play at these exhibitions or even various types of forage?
Surely, there is room for displaying when in season, the most succulent genips, star apples, persimmons, varied mango species, mammies, grapes, granadillas, broccoli, mushrooms, lychee, logan, iceberg lettuce, honey-dew melons, cantaloupes, carrots, sugar apples, custard apples, guavas and cauliflower.
Why is the cultivation of these items not encouraged? Subject to quarantine arrangements there are a host of tropical tolerant fruit trees which could have been introduced into Guyana over the past decade. Is it beyond the scope of our young people for their energies to be properly channeled? When are we going to stop the Town and Village days as an excuse, in large part, for a Main Big Lime with the dance hall Clapham Junction amplified noise?
Thomas Jefferson stated that ‘the greatest contribution that one could make to a country is to introduce a new plant to its culture’.
Editor, cannot the recipients of house lots in a particular locale be persuaded to grow a particular new fruit specie after soil samples have been taken to determine a particular PH friendly fruit trees or garden vegetable?
There are a host of avenues in agriculture which are open to interested persons who do not possess a secondary or tertiary education.
Our women could seek out an entity called FarmHer, wherein they can become engaged in agriculture with minimum input.
There is an abject slothfulness in the forward movement of the agriculture discipline in embarking on new territory. I wonder how many planners are afforded the opportunity of visiting an agricultural trade fair overseas in order to widen their horizons.
It is obvious that there is need for a more aggressive, agile, visionary, and technically exposed individual at the helm. Time is not on our side.
Finally, allow me to close on a personal note. At the age of ten or thereabout when doing Nature Study at Queenstown RC School, the class was exposed to the experiment of germinating a blackeye bean in a glass with water and blotting paper. My daughter reminded me that she had a similar experience at St Agnes School at the age of 8 years. My grandson of three years four months attends a Discovery Montessori school in Georgia. He was recently photographed in a class preparing germination of a sweet potato in a jar of water with tooth picks inserted into the skin.
Aubrey Alexander
Deputy Director of Civil Aviation (Ret’d)

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