FARMERS of Buxton/Friendship have complained that though they are trying to make a massive comeback in agricultural production, the drainage system in their community makes way for flooding.The farmers, who operated under the registered cooperative society the Kryenhoff’s Empolder, registered owners of the Buxton/Friendship Grantees, said they have been facing setbacks over decades now with major parts of the farms being destroyed to accommodate works of past governments.

They have been motivated by President David Granger’s President’s initiative for the creation of a green economy, and have already fixed over 500 new plants in the ground.
Going forward, however, is a challenge as they have to cope with a drainage system which was re-designed decades ago.
“They change up the drainage network in 1989… when they change up the network, all these place was trees… so they had to grade down them trees,” Leror Hamer, Chairman of the group told the Guyana Chronicle.
He said a dam was constructed high between the sucker beds and the main canal for some distance through the farmlands on Brusche Dam, Friendship.
It is now impossible for the water from the beds to drain directly in the canal and the water now runs a distance north to south before meeting a passage out into the canal, which was dug when the PPP Government bulldozed the farm to flush out criminals.
“They put it high that when the water meet up to the mouth, inside the bed gon flood. That was 1989 and since 1989 to date, the onliest time this sucker drain maintain is when them did grade down this piece of place (in 2008), from where they stop the grading down they dig out the sucker drain and come out,” Hamer said.
He said recently engineers visited the area and cleared some drains, but never communicated with the farmers to understand what their needs are.
Hamer said although they are willing to farm on a larger scale, that problem along with a shortage of market, would become major setbacks.

“From there go up certain part yuh ain’t even get no sucker drain so how the water gon come out? You ain’t even get no gutter for no water to come out, so how yuh telling people fuh farm and yuh just come and dig out deh and gone? Me ain’t want nobody come round me to try to mek mock off of me. I is a farmer I know wha I gatto do, I know wha gatto do. Deal with me as a farmer! You have an engineer, you engineer supposed to listen to we, document and make recommendation… but when you coming and doing yuh own thing I can’t support you because me ain’t benefit nothing from wha you coming and do.”
The co-op chairman said some farmers became discouraged when the place was bulldozed a second time in 2008, and even now when excavator operators traverse the area to dig drains, they throw down plants that seem to be in their way, even some that could have remained.
This has not stopped Hamer for farming which he said is in his blood.
“Psychologically, that is wha deh doing, so after a time we must geh fed up and leave it. But not me. Fuh me they gatto carry way the land. When deh carry it and I know that no more land ain’t deh, I cyan do no more planting. When you talk bout real agriculture… Leh we put the right systems in place… We need the dam, the trench, the sucker drain the tubein to bring out the water and then we gon talk bout farming,” Hamer said, adding: “Is a long time they failing we.”