FARMERS at Bush Lot are calling on the Ministry of Agriculture to assist them in getting easy access to their farmlands.Last Saturday the Guyana Chronicle visited the area where farmers spoke primarily about the access dam to almost 55,000 acres of farmlands off the main road. It was noted that while some

works were done to the main access dam that farmers use to get to the farmlands, since the scheme was developed in the 1980s, there has not been any significant work to the dam since.
Rice farmer Rachpaul Hamlet told the Guyana Chronicle that he has been farming for more than fifty years in the area. In addition to the main dam that gets farmers to their cultivation areas, all other dams have either run flat, gotten low and are run over by water from the farmlands whenever rain falls, making the dams impassable.

However, the farmer made it clear that he was not blaming the former administration for the state of the dam, nor was he looking to have the issues they were raising to be turned into a point for political mileage. He said that all farmers in the area want attention paid to the dam so that accessing rice farms can be much easier than it is now.

The farmers are also willing to pool their resources to convert the main access dam to an all-weather road which will see each rice farmer being able to get close to the lands with ease.
At the moment they spend days in the backdam to stock machinery along the dam which results in them losing time and money in the process. He added that access to spray, cultivate and reap remains a bugbear all because of the ever so often impassable dam.

Hamlet said that the number of tractors which use the main dam makes it very hard for each farmer whenever it rains as the dam becomes hard to traverse.

Meanwhile, another farmer, Simon Dutchin, who has been cultivating some 100 acres of rice land echoed the sentiments of Hamlet. He spoke specifically to the downtime having to use the dam during rainy season.
He stated that sometimes farmers may need to access their lands to effect a one-day work but due to the state of the dam they end up spending three to four days getting that job done.

The man who has been farming for the past five years also stressed the point of the financial burden on persons who do not have their own machinery and have to rent from others. According to him if a budget was created to rent machinery for one day, once problems are encountered getting into the farmlands then there are delays which see the machinery being kept for more than the day, that incurs added price of fuel, rental, workmanship and downtime also.

Once that happens machinery is then left in the backdam and workers have to be paid to keep guard to avoid vandalism.

He also called for there to be more drainage works and development of the MMA/ADA Scheme.

James Sooklall, a father of six, who plants 60 acres of rice told the Guyana Chronicle that whenever there is bad weather the dam becomes extremely hard to traverse. He also spoke of tractors getting stuck in the mud and having to remain there for hours and sometimes days.

Meanwhile when this publication and another media house ventured into the backlands with the farmers it was observed that the dam was indeed in a deplorable state. What was also notable was that it did not rain much the day before or the day that we visited but yet the dam was soggy and provides a challenge for the tractor we were traveling on.

Sections of the dam were also impassable even as it appeared to be at the level of the bordering trenches, with rice fields on the left and right.
The farmers also spoke out about how their rice cultivation continues to be eaten up and mashed down by cows and other animals which are taken into the rice fields on a daily basis to graze.

The Guyana Chronicle was on hand to witness a cattle rearer leading his cows into the rice cultivation area to graze. When asked by this publication about the cows eating down the rice, the cattle owner remarked: “They does just stop and eat when they passing man, they cannot eat out all the rice.”

By Leroy Smith