Farmer Derick Alli is a ‘Special Person’

Jul 26, 2020 News, Special Person

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Helping to keep the nation fed amid COVID-19…

 

By Romario Blair

People rarely refer to farming as a dignified career, after all, the person tilling the muddy fields, often has nothing more than a primary school education. A world without agriculture, however, will simply mean a world of starvation and poverty. This therefore means farmers are as important as our doctors, lawyers and engineers. The Pomeroon region for instance, is often referred to as the food basket of Guyana, as many industrious farmers work tirelessly to supply the nation with bountiful produce.

Derick Alli is a farmer from the Lower Pomeroon River who developed a passion for farming since around the tender age of six or seven. Alli cultivates 40 acres of citrus, cash crops, coconuts, bananas and plantains in his home community of Merlborough, which is located in the Lower Pomeroon River. Even at the age of 64, Alli’s passion for farming is very much alive as the urge to farm runs deep within his veins.
Though many would look down on the farming profession, Alli said that he believes it is quite noble. “Farming is a very old profession,” said Alli during a recent interview with me.
Making reference to the holy book, he went on to say, “if you go back to when God created the world, Adam was the first farmer since he was placed in a garden to call his home, and I consider farming to be a very noble profession… In the agriculture sector, common sense outweighs education, sometimes you may not have the required qualification but you have the practical knowledge.”
LIFE IN THE POMEROON
According to farmer Alli, he was practically born into farming as both his father and grandfather were farmers. In 1955, he was born to Gafoor and Petronella Alli at the Charity Hospital on the Essequibo Coast. His grandfather, he explained, originated from Lusignan on the East Coast of Demerara and later purchased land in the Pomeroon and moved there. When asked how long he had been in the farming business, Alli said, “I grew up on the farm and by age six or seven I was already on the farm doing my thing. Childhood was carefree in the Pomeroon. There is a vast difference between living on the road (coast) and country living; as a child although we had responsibility we had time to play, and you had time to plunge in the river and swim.”
Alli said that the one thing he remembers the most about his parents, is that they were disciplinarians. “My father was of Indian decent and my mother was mixed. Growing up then was much different than today, especially when it comes to respecting persons older than you… in those days, young children were more disciplined.”
In sharing one of his childhood experiences, he said, “growing up, people use to call each other false name, and by people I mean the grown-ups. So one day this man was passing by, and my brother and I decided that we would call him the false name we heard our parents call him. The man run me and my brother, grab my little brother and drop some lash on he with his sandal. When he complained to my father my brother got a second dose, so it was no nonsense in those days,” Alli recounted.

It was experiences like those, he said, that taught him valuable lessons which he was able to apply in various stages in his life.
TAKING UP THE MANTLE
Sadly, at the age of 10 farmer Alli’s father passed away, leaving 10 children and his wife behind. He said that at this point, things had become quite difficult financially. “Things were difficult then because in order to go to school I had to wash and wear one pants and one shirt,” he said. At the age of 16, he recalled, he was left with no choice but to leave school to fend for his younger siblings and widowed mother.
“I left school at 16 because I had all the rest of siblings behind me so I had to work to send them to school and I had to support my mother too… We were still kids then but we didn’t have weekends off because it was on the farm all the time,” said Alli.
In the 1970s, Alli temporarily gave up life on the farm and joined the public service. “At one point I was a public servant at the Charity Post Office. Later in 1974 I joined the police force for two years and then I worked as a fisherman, then as a miner,” he revealed.
Alli said that the need to be self-employed eventually brought him back to the farm. “One of the reasons I stuck to farming is because I don’t like being employed by other people. I like being my own boss… and with farming there are lots of benefits; for one you get your own products, anything you need you plant it yourself,” he explained.
He further revealed that farming has kept him fit and healthy throughout the years. “Almost everybody when I tell them my age, they don’t believe because I don’t look like 64. At my age I don’t have any complaints and I eat healthy – from the farm to the table,” he said with pride.
CHANGES OVER THE YEARS
With over 55 years in the industry, farmer Alli said that there have been many changes in the agriculture sector when compared to back in the day. He explained that the biggest challenge today, is the unavailability of markets for produce. He disclosed that back in the 1970s there was greater government involvement which had helped to boost agriculture in the Pomeroon.
According to him, “In 1972 there was severe flooding in Pomeroon and the government assisted the farmers tremendously then. During those days there were a lot of oranges in the Pomeroon. What the government did is that they use to purchase the oranges and use to dump them, just so that they can assist the farmers.”
Alli said that today there is no fix system in place which allows farmers to effectively market their produce. Instead, the “hucksters” arrangement is in place. Hucksters are persons who usually move produce from one point to another in the Pomeroon, often from farmers to the markets. Alli explained that at times, this arrangement can be exploitative.
“Sometimes these hucksters they come and they see you struggling with all these produce and they will call any price. When you calculate you know very well you cannot make back a profit, and because it is perishable you gotta give it off. We refer to that as unfair market prices because as a farmer you will have to exercise a lot of patience to grow your crop to get the right produce and it is unfair to give it away in a sense for a poor price.”
Alli said that in the 1970s, the government also boosted marketing tremendously, through the Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC). “So with the GMC, farmers use to carry their produce to the corporation and they use to help sell it.”
ADJUSTING TO COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has no doubt taken a heavy toll on almost every aspect of our lives, including the economy. Alli said that farming has been affected to some extent too. The farmer said that there has been a decline in the sale of some produce, while there has been an increase in the demand for others. He explained that since the world is on lockdown, the demand for coconuts, for instance, has been on a decline. “Most people who buy the coconut they buy it for export, so because the export market is close down they are buying less water coconut.”
Alli explained that as persons become more conscious of their health needs, there has been an increase in the demand for citrus. “What we noticed is that there has been an increase in the demand for oranges, tangerines, and lemons… on the market we hear persons talking that they need to stock up on their Vitamin C to help fight off the Coronavirus so while we lose on the coconuts, we gain on the citrus,” he informed.
According to Alli, agriculture has been here from since the day man was created and therefore without it “we will plunge into starvation.” On that note, he said that the government should place much more emphasis on the agriculture sector even as he noted “If the government should neglect farming we are going down the wrong road. Farm produce will sell more when the oil and gas industry is up and running. I urge the government to place more emphasis; pump more oil revenues into the agriculture sector because at the end of the day, we all need food to survive.”
Apart from consistently toiling on his farm, Alli has been happily fathering eight children, three of whom he shares with his wife Bridget. He is also the proud grandfather of 12. When asked what he values most in life, Alli said, “I value my family and we try to make the very best of life. In 1999 my wife and I got baptized into the Full Gospel Church and today I am an Elder there. Three of my children are also members of the same congregation,” he proudly revealed. For remaining dedicated to farming even in the face of a pandemic today we at Kaieteur News bestow farmer Alli with our title of ‘Specia Person’.

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