THE Ministry of Agriculture will continue to offer technical support to farmers in De Buff Village and Canal Number 2 Polder, West Bank Demerara who were affected by heavy rainfall over the past few weeks. In a statement issued yesterday, Agriculture Minister Dr. Leslie Ramsammy affirmed that the Ministry’s staff will continue to engage the farmers, to ensure that they are able to resume their farming as soon as possible.
“The most notable area affected was (the) Canal Polder area. I am pleased to see that the interventions that were made have led to the removal of water from the affected farm areas. I would like to thank the farmers who worked with the technical staff to address the problem, and (for) the cooperation the farmers provided. The farmers provided valuable insight, and their recommendations generally were very helpful. All the necessary actions were implemented,” Dr Ramsammy said.
The Minister further explained that the staff of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) have been working with local authorities and with people in the communities to avert any negative impact from the rains, while, at the same time, they have been working with stakeholders to ensure adequate amounts of irrigation water flow to the areas that needed water.
In spite of those efforts, he acknowledged that incessant rainfall in December of last year caused some problems for some farmers and some communities, and reminded that each affected area received the necessary attention from the Agriculture Ministers (Dr Ramsammy and Ali Baksh) and support of the technical staff of the Agriculture Ministry.
Alluding to the scope of this support, Minister Ramsammy said, “The Ministers ensured that the technical staff had the resources to respond wherever assistance was needed… We have been working closely with the National Drainage and Irrigation staff throughout this difficult period, to ensure optimal performance from the Drainage and Irrigation (D&I) system. We have also been working with technical officers from the National Agriculture Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) and the Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA), to provide technical support to farmers throughout the country.”
Continuing, he said, he was encouraged by the confidence expressed by his technical staff and by the various stakeholders that, should more rains come, the area should be in a better position to avert a similar situation to the one that arose with the December rains.
In this regard, Minister Ramsammy reiterated that the staff of the Agriculture Ministry would continue to engage the farmers to ensure that they are able to resume their farming as soon as possible, as the Ministry staff members have been mandated by the Ministers of Agriculture to ensure all possible support is provided to the farmers.