Refuting Corbin claim…
VICE-CHAIRMAN, Mr. Vishnu Samaroo has reported that vegetable production is on the increase across Region Two (Pomeroon/Supenaam).

Speaking at the July statutory meeting of the Regional Democratic Council (RDC), he said it is because farmers have responded positively to the Government ‘grow more’ food campaign.

Samaroo said planters have cultivated large acreages of vegetable and vine crops and, every Monday, tonnes of produce are transported to Charity, on Essequibo Coast, for shipment to Georgetown, other parts of the country and the Caribbean.

He said the farming community in Pomeroon has had the benefit of Government assistance in the form of seeds, chemicals, planting materials and more.

Samaroo said Pomeroon farmers are very pleased with the drive and the Government response to the flood situation several years ago, by sending two machines to desilt and clear blocked drainage canals and impolder farms.

Meanwhile, after Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Robert Corbin visited Pomeroon last Friday and said he was told of many promises not being fulfilled by Government, several farmers said he should be at Charity Marketing Centre wharf on Mondays to see the amount of produce on the farmers’ stelling.

Farmers said every undertaking given by the Government has been met and Pomeroon will return to being the bread basket of the Caribbean.

They said, only recently, Government handed over a new steel pontoon for transporting machines to any place along Pomeroon River.

Currently, Alfro Alphonso Pomeroon Oil Mill is buying copra at $30 per pound and a coconut water bottling plant is in operation in Pomeroon, where 30,000 water coconuts are purchased every week from farmers.

Farmers also pointed out that, in Cozier Canal, the Government has rehabilitated the concrete double door sluice which was abandoned for more than 20 years by the People’s National Congress (PNC) Government to which Corbin belonged.

In addition, a two and a half miles long sluice channel, that was clogged with vegetation, was desilted and farmers are rushing back to the fertile land in the agricultural scheme there, since the drainage canals were excavated.

The Government has also constructed a new sluice and rehabilitated the New Guyana Marketing Corporation wharf.