SEEDLING producers who are members of the Region 10 Shade House Cooperative Society, on Saturday, received donations of tools and seeds from Member of Parliament, Jermaine Figueira, who partnered with several charitable organisations, to embark on a project aimed at promoting food security for the region.

The organisations which include the Food for the Poor and Caring for Others have responded positively to the MPs call for assistance in the local agricultural sector, which over the years have been struggling.

It has been noted, that the farmers in Linden are forced to purchase seeds and seedlings from nurseries out of the region, since there is not enough to meet their demands locally.

The seedling producers have also noted their challenges. These include the lack of tools, purchasing expensive and low quality seeds and the fluctuating weather which have been destroying the seedlings in the nurseries.

Taking these challenges into consideration, the cooperative society was recently formed to tackle these issues and Figueira came on board to assist in the growth and development of the farmers.

Two pilot nurseries were identified, one located in One Mile Wismar while the other is located in Half Mile and the farmers who were encouraged to commence shade house and organic farming will be given the needed technical assistance through the coop, in order to produce more.

One of Linden’s most recognised seedling producer, Cleaveland Tappin, told Guyana Chronicle, that he has been experiencing tremendous difficulty in producing the seedlings, thus, he lost the support of the local farmers who have turned to out of town producers for their stock.

In addition to the lack of tools, one of the major challenges he said is sourcing quality seeds, since the ones that he purchase in Georgetown are many times, of low quality.

“Sometimes you would get seed that is not of good quality, sometimes the shelf life does be gone, these places in Georgetown that would sell seed, these seed should be put in a certain temperature but they does get them on the shelf and the shelf life does be gone faster. If you don’t get fresh seed you would get poor germination,” he said.

OPTIMISTIC
Tappin said now that he has been receiving the support from MP Figueira and the cooperative, he is optimistic that with the new tools and seeds, production will spiral and is therefore calling on the local farmers to support their own.

“If you support me, it’s a two-way street. I will grow and you will grow,” he said. He believes that if farmers give the local seedling producers the support needed, agriculture in Linden will be given impetus since it will be a faster process for the farmers who will no longer have to invest time to care for the seedlings.

Executive Member of the Cooperation, Orin Gordon, who is also a large-scale farmer, praised the initiative and commended the MP for his help since the cooperation was in dire need of the assistance.

He added that it is a real pain to see farmers giving the support to out of town producers.

“One of the first things we are looking at is substitution, instead of the trucks coming in doing the kind of business and not knowing where the stuff is coming from and all of that, we decided to let us do the production in our community and make it more available for the residents.”

This will also benefit the farmers tremendously since they lose about 40 per cent of the seedlings before they reach Linden.

Figueira, in an invited comment said that he is on a mission to ensure that the people of the region have access to food that is of an organic nature.

“I have collaborated with the coop to have a shade house in each of the eight constituencies of the township and to eventually have it spread across the region,” he revealed.

The MP explained that to have a boost in the local agricultural sector, farmers have to meet the demands of the customers in their respective communities as it relates to quality and quantity.

“The members of the coop have the experience and the know how to assist collectively, we in the community will work to realise the vision of food security in this region, one shade house at a time.”

Some of the tools that were donated include cutlasses, spades, fork, file, pick axe, long boots, a hand tool set and a variety of seeds.