Minister Persaud assures Mainstay/Whyaka residents of Govt’s continued support
… commissions kiln-drying facility and presents feature address at school graduation
During a visit to the Essequibo Coast Wednesday, Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud had a packed programme of activities, commencing with the commissioning ceremony of a wood product kiln-drying facility at Land of Plenty, then delivering the feature address at the Charity Secondary School’s 15th Graduation and Prize-Giving Ceremony, and culminating with a meeting at the Mainstay/Whyaka community at Princeville, where he met with the residents of the farming community to address their concerns.
Sharing the head table with the Minister at the Amerindian community were Head of NARI, Dr. Odho Homenauth; Chairman of Region Two, Mr. Ally Baksh; and Toshao of the village, Mrs. Yvonne Pearson.
The main complaint of most of the farmers, who mainly grow pineapples for the AMCAR company, which processes the fruit in the community’s processing facility for export to European markets, mainly France, is that the El Nino phenomenon has constricted the productivity and size of their fruit so that they could not reach the requisite target that AMCAR requires for its operations, thus they are forced to find markets for their produce. The company is also requesting a drop in price from $90 to $60 for the next two years, which the farmers say is an improbable proposition.
They also requested that the Minister intercede in the relevant forum to facilitate macadamizing their road as the current state of the road is an impediment to ferrying their produce to desired locations. They complained that the activities of a regional contractor, who is currently working on the Tapakuma Bridge, have severely damaged the road, making it nearly impassable.
The Minister instructed the Regional Chairman to ensure that the contractor fixes the road to an acceptable standard before any payment is made for the works done by the contracting firm, to which the Chairman acceded.
The Minister, recognizing that there is a need for sustained and consistent supply of pineapples in requisite amounts of a minimum of 1,000 fruits to make AMCAR’s operating the facility viable, which has not been happening for a while because of the toll El Nino took on the farmers’ produce, suggested that the residents should not depend solely on the company, nor on one product, punning that members of the community should not put all their pines in one basket, or one bottle, but should operate the facility themselves, and expand operations beyond  pineapple into other crops and products, stressing that value-added is the way of salvation and prosperity for the community.
He said while AMCAR had control of the European market, there are viable markets in other territories that can be explored. The Minister said that the company is concerned about the consistency of supplies that could make their operations and alluded to an incentive scheme he had implemented when he last visited the community in June of this year, whereby, for every acre cultivated by a farmer, the Ministry of Agriculture would cover the cost of land preparation for another acre. Minister Persaud said that he made this offer in an effort to work with the farmers to reach viable levels of productivity and make operating the processing facility a sustainable proposition. NARI was also mandated to provide technical support, which the research station has been doing.
However, the Minister indicated a bag with monies to be disbursed to the farmers, but said that the numbers determining productivity of individual farmers were not impressive as not everyone has worked to expectations, and so only those who fulfilled the terms of the incentive offer would receive the $30,000 incentive payment, while others would receive lesser amounts in accordance with their levels of productivity.
As for the villagers’ contentions with AMCAR, the Minister informed the farmers that the Government cannot intercede in nor determine pricing mechanisms of private companies, but could only facilitate dialogue between the company and stakeholders.  He promised to collaborate with the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs to facilitate such dialogue.
However, the Minister reiterated his position that the villagers needed to utilize their facility and develop their own product lines through value-added initiatives and promised continued Government support, especially through a NARI/GSA collaborative exercise, where technical support would align with product development, as well as market-share expansion through GMC, which would provide wider opportunities for expanded operations.
With a view to making the community completely self-sufficient, Minister Persaud also handed over pigs and cattle to start breeding programmes, with a long-term vision of making the community self-sustaining in meat, dairy and other value-added products.
Toshao Pearson informed the Minister that she had been thinking along similar lines like the Minister and had even initiated discussions with her councillors to that effect. She said that the agro-processing facility also has a juicing machine that has never been utilized and this would be another initiative that the community would begin, along with a new poultry-rearing venture.   She endorsed the Minister’s concept of initiating new ventures and engaging in other areas of productivity with a view to expanding the operations in the agro-processing facility.
Minister Persaud assisted with the distribution of the incentive money to the farmers before leaving to inspect the cattle and pigs that the Ministry had donated to the villagers.