I wish to respond to a tarnished letter penned by Mervyn Williams
regarding the reorganisation of the extension service within the
Ministry of Agriculture. Why can’t some politicians just make up their mind what they want and
what they represent, I recalled a few months ago where Williams made
several swipes at the Ministry of Agriculture’s extension service
stating that it’s poor and unreliable and not being able to reach out
to farmers. In summary, the Agriculture Ministry at that time
responded that efforts are being made to improve this service.
Now plans and strategies are being rolled out by the Ministry, Mr.
Williams is not pleased and the whole issue is now being
politicised. In relation to the instructions that were given to the
CCLO by the Director of NARI, I do agree to an extent due to the
sensitive nature of the issue that the appropriate officer should have
issued the instruction. However, I am sure that the content of the
instructions would not have changed and thus Williams’s claims are not
relevant.

The outburst by him is not the least surprising as he seeks to
politicise this matter to gain attention and continue the
misinformation campaign.
Sir, when farmers demanded improvement of the
extension services Williams provided some support and now wants to
jeopardise the thousands of farmers from accessing improved technical
and other support. What is Williams really interested in, cheap politics
or moving Guyana forward?

Once again, he chooses to jump on a crooked limb to dampen the
transformation of the extension services which is long overdue,
however, timely. The move to reorganise the extension service will put
an end to some of the shortcomings in the delivery of service to
farmers which Minister Persaud publicly highlighted on numerous
occasions.

Williams went on a long charade to rant and rave about the poor response
by extension service to deal with the plantain/banana disease a few
months ago where he stated and I quote “Unlike the Minister Mr.
Robert Persaud, his officers are not visible in the fields”  as was published in the Kaieteur News on January 19, 2010. Further, I wish to highlight that the reorganisation is aimed at some of the very inefficiency that Williams cited.

I end with a popular and appropriate quote “Damned if you do, damned
if you don’t”