Berbice is being taken for a ride

Apr 14, 2022 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Berbicians are not easily fooled. They know that not much will come of those plans which the government is laying for the county.

Ironically, it is the government – whose headquarter is located in Georgetown – which is hatching all these grand plans for Berbice. But the Berbicians themselves have little say in the development of these plans.

Were they consulted when these plans were being drawn-up? Are they being consulted now that projects are already in the pipeline?

If they were consulted, they would have reminded President Irfaan Ali that what he is doing is attempting to relive the failed dreams of Bharrat Jagdeo. It was Jagdeo who first began talking about a deep-water harbour for Guyana. That was more than 15 years ago. To this day, there is no deep-water harbour. In fact, the country’s main port runs alongside a river which badly needs dredging.

A deep-water harbour requires shipping traffic and high levels of exports to be viable. Guyana’s economy is too small. Rice and the compressed sugar production are not going to make a deep-water harbour viable. And with the oil companies shipping oil directly from the FPSO to export markets, a deep water habour seems set to join the other white elephant in Region Six – the beleaguered Skeldon Sugar Factory.

One of the main reasons responsible for the proposal for a deep-water habour had to do with faster and cheaper movement of goods to the northern part of Brazil. But that is no longer the case. Brazil no longer needs a land route for faster imports and exports from its northern regions. Because of improvements in internal trade, it is cheaper to move goods from the South to the North of Brazil than to use a deep-water harbour in Guyana which is connected overland to northern Brazil. Brazil, unlike Guyana, was not sitting on its laurels waiting on Jagdeo’s pipedream about a deep-water harbour.

However, Berbicians may get a new harbour because of the increased in oil exploration which is likely to take place. They may even have a new port because of the need to export rice directly from Berbice rather than shipping it through Georgetown. But that is not going to be the sort of harbour which will be akin to the one which was being contemplated when the Jagdeo administration first began promising a deep-water harbour.

The strength of Berbice lies in agriculture. But there are feudal relations in the region’s agricultural sector and that represents the greatest obstacle to the development of agriculture.

The government says that it will open 50,000 acres of land for agricultural production. But not long ago there were concerns about there not being lands available. But assuming that new lands are going to be reopened as a result of farm to market roads, the government should indicate to whom these lands will be given. Will they fall into the lap of the landed oligarchy which has more lands than it needs? Or will the landless be provided with lands?

The lands in Berbice require significant investment in order to become arable. Lands have to be cleared of vegetation and drained of swamps. Provision has to be made for irrigation and drainage. So where will the landless find the resources to develop these lands?

Guyana is hoping to become the breadbasket of the Caribbean. But that too is a pipe dream. Guyana does not have the capacity to produce for large export markets. Apart from rice, sugar and coconuts, Guyana will struggle to fill a container of any other crops. Production concentration is low.

Guyana is establishing some sort of container facility in Brazil. But where will the production come to fill the containers in that facility?

Irfaan Ali should abandon the idea of trying to redeem the Jagdeo Initiative under the guise of regional food security. The Jagdeo Initiative was an abysmal failure. It went nowhere. The technical experts had long identified the binding constraints to regional agriculture. Jagdeo had to no answer as to how to overcome these constraints, apart from the mega farm projects which gained little traction regionally.

Now here comes Irfaan Ali popping along with some plan about food security. His plan revolves around increasing production and dismantling barriers to trade in agricultural goods. If, however, Ali believes that the barriers will come down, he is only deluding himself.

As for food security, Guyana is already food secure in six major food groups, and more than 60 percent of the foods we consume are grown in Guyana. Does Ali know that?

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