ACCORDING to Stabroek News Friday September 13, 2013, Mr Howai reported that the government is “moving ahead” to enable the cultivation of 10,000 acres and later, 90,000 acres in Berbice.

The government is very aggressively advocating divestment of our rich agricultural lands to Trinidad. Our farmers must take a dispassionate look at this issue and not be overwhelmed by those who take such positions, whether from an ideological standpoint or because their friends stand to gain.
There seems to be a disorganised system and situation as regards the processing of applications for our small and big farmers and no one in the government is working to regularise the situation as regards the processing of applications. They are not looking at a progressive programme for land to the tiller which, when they do not have, they are denied the opportunity of so many things, including the right and liberty to access their own farmlands where they are born.
Lest I be misunderstood, let me say clearly that I am not against leasing rich agricultural lands to Trinidad or any other CARICOM country, but I do not believe that it should in every instance, be the first or only option leaving aside our own people. Let me add also that I am not against private enterprise.
However, farmers have never been happy working for foreign companies or governments, and they do not give farmers the kind of comfort.
In that case, a farmer knows that he owns the land permanently and he is much more likely to spend time on improvement as regards inheritance. Given our endowment of extensive and rich agricultural lands, it is a matter of commonsense to make the expansion of the agricultural sector one of the main planks of our development strategy: to ensure that the people have an adequate, regular and varied supply of nutritious food.
A country which depends for its food supply on external sources is in a vulnerable position. It is incapable of guaranteeing its citizens adequate or regular food supplies, and find it difficult (if not impossible) to exercise an important option of social policy, i.e. regulating and maintaining food prices at reasonable levels. Moreover, such a country is susceptible to serious political pressures from outside.
Food is a weapon. It is the principal tool in our negotiating kit. Food has been used as a weapon in the ruthless power-play which characterises the “game of nations”.
I therefore believe that our own farmers should be given the opportunity to those lands, not only to retain the 10,000 acres, but also to expand them. Our farmers have acquired great experience and skills and given the opportunity now they will be able to make very valuable contributions to Guyana.