Mennonites interest in Guyana’s agriculture

Nov 05, 2023 Letters

Dear Editor,

I note with interest the Kaieteur News report that the Mennonites, an erstwhile US Christian group of German origin, if I may so describe them, is ‘eyeing’ the acquisition of large scale land in Guyana for agricultural development. Incidentally the Mennonites Christian beliefs and practices are somewhat similar to the Amish sect but distant from that of the infamous former Jim Jones cult.

I first came across the Mennonites group on a visit to Belize in the nineteen seventies with the Caribbean Agro-Economic Society while I was pursuing my career with GuySuCo Agriculture Research.

The Caribbean Agro-Economic Society, CAAES for short, is an arm of the Dept of Agricultural Economics and Extension of UWI at St. Augustine, Trinidad and has been formally engaged since 1974 in holding these agro-Conferences on a rotating basis in different Caribbean countries.

The first West Indies Agricultural Economics Conference I attended was in 1975 when it was hosted by Guyana. I served as Secretary of the CAAES when the Conference was held in St. Kitts in 1978 and thereafter in Belize. If my memory serves me well, I believe Dr Carl Greenidge my fellow Guyana representative, was also elected Vice-President at that St. Kitts Conference.

Delegates visited the Mennonites establishment in Belize as part of a case study to provide production and systems analytical data. At that time there was interest in gathering comparative information, vis-a-vis the Mennonites agriculture, on the economics and environmental sustainability of the ‘cut, burn and plant’ system of agriculture practiced by the indigenous nomadic MILPAS farmers. At that time both culture systems were also in use in other Central American countries.

I remember being impressed by the industriousness, austerity and self-reliance of this all-white Mennonites group with customs, way of life and social habits far removed from that of the regular Belizeans. Their farming operations were essentially mechanized with the community members having the general capability of equipment management and maintenance. Their farm holdings were fairly extensive, and from what I gathered, with the fairly predictive weather patterns and flat terrain, enabled little reliance on external labour.

Their crops at that time were mainly red beans and peanuts, with some dairy livestock. During the farm visit, delegates were invited to make token purchases of red beans and cheese processed at the farm, items which were import restricted, particularly in Guyana at that time.

Proceedings of these past West Indies Agricultural Economics Meetings held under the auspices of CAAES and sponsorship by the respective host countries have been archived and available for interest.

Yours faithfully,

Fritz C McLean

Former GuySuCo Executive Director of Agriculture and Diversified Crops,

Past Board Chairman of the Guyana Statistical Bureau and the Guyana School of Agriculture

Caribbean Agro-Economic Society, Fritz C McLean, German, Mennonites, West Indies Agricultural Economics Conference

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Mennonites interest in Guyana’s agriculture

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