AS a veteran Pomeroon farmer attached to the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) I made an extensive visit to the lower Pomeroon farming areas.
At Akawini, a drainage programme, executed by NDIA has facilitated more than 15 farmers when 200 odd acres of farmlands were empoldered as a safeguard against flooding. The group leader Mr. Bradley Griffith expressed satisfaction for the help from central government and is happy that the Ministry of Agriculture can devise ways and means to subsidise agriculture. Mr. Griffith said that 12,000 odd acres of coconut cultivation are located on the right bank of the Pomeroon, embodied by the Cozier, Hackney Canals, a 12-mile canal which is maintained by central government.
I met more than 60 farmers at Muncher, all of whom send their farm produce to Georgetown or Trinidad. Large amounts of coconuts and plantains are exported to Trinidad, inclusive of bottled coconut water.
Even though the fuel price is high, Pomeroon farmers’ means of transportation is by high-powered engines.The traditional motor launch has disappeared.
The housing acceleration in Guyana has not bypassed the Pomeroon River district. Approximately 60 per cent of new buildings with various architectures now adorn the landscape of the river banks. Most families have their own generating sets; as such, access to television and recharge of cellular phones are not prohibited.
School buildings at Martindale, Marlborough, Friendship Canal, Lily Dale, Hackney, Liberty and St John, receive their full quota, supervised by the Regional Ministry of Education.
The new developing farm area in the ‘Nune canal’ had a new school recently commissioned by the regional authorities. It is likely that a survey will be carried out to examine how and when some rundown coconut plantations can be brought back to full production. Some setbacks were due to new farmers abandoning the system of river defence, established by the former