Farmers desire to go back to the days of unlimited supply

THE Ithaca Agricultural Land Development Coop Society secretary, Desmond Weeks has expressed confidence in the village of Ithaca on the West Bank of Berbice becoming a supplier of ground provision, vegetables and other produce in large parts of Guyana yet again.

Weeks told the Pepperpot Magazine that he has great hope for his village and countrymen and know that they will “get themselves together while getting the younger men in the village more involved in agriculture.” According to him, the village was once a supplier of the greater majority of produce to the Bourda market in years gone by.

“Ithaca, for over 50 years or more supplied a lot of what the people who purchased from Bourda market,” he said, adding that the village eventually encountered drainage and irrigation problems that caused a slowdown in farming activities and eventually almost brought a cessation of activities.

According to Weeks, on January 1, every year during the 1970s and 1980s President L.F.S. Burnham visited villages, starting from Ithaca, where he reached out to the farmers and others and offered necessary assistance, which was a major form of encouragement to them, he stated.

In addition, he explained that by the use of a “quick hand” process they were used to getting the natural flow of water from the tributary. However, with the start of rice in the backlands, there was a halt in the natural supply of water to take care of their crops. This he said caused a tremendous slowdown in farming activities in the village.

Weeks said that with the help of new initiatives through the Ministry of Agriculture and other international agencies, Ithaca is now getting back on stream and is positioned to show much more progress this time than even before the 70s and 80s.

He said that at the moment he has a very large amount of coconut plants in place and should be able to begin reaping in greater amounts in the not too distant future. In addition, he pointed out that his vegetable farm is “doing very well” and that he has been reaping thousands of pumpkin and now working on the market to get them off.

Cattle rearing and jaguars
Hundreds of heads of cattle are also being reared by Wickliffe Solomon of Ithaca village. He said that he started back at this scale just last year. He said that he has also commenced planting coconuts on a large-scale, though he has been encountering some amount of challenges and ‘teething’ problems.

In addition, Solomon showed the Pepperpot Magazine the state of some of his cattle, who were evidently in a traumatized state. Many of the cattle seem angry, afraid or ready to attack; a situation Solomon said came about as a result of them being attacked by jaguars right there in the Ithaca back dam.

He explained that he and other members of the coop made efforts to remove many of the cows to what they considered being a ‘safer place’ just a little distance away from where they were being attacked. This, however, he said only created another difficulty since the cows are not reacting well, given that they are traumatised.

When the Pepperpot Magazine visited the site where the cows and a large number of sheep were placed, it was noticed that some of the cows seemed somewhat malnourished. Solomon said that they were refusing to eat, as part of their reaction for being removed from the ‘jaguar-infested’ home setting. In fact, one of the cows had gotten very sick and was seen lying in the grass in what seemed to be some amount of agony. This publication later learnt that the animal died.

Meanwhile, when contacted on this particular problem by the Pepperpot Magazine, Khemlall Alvin, Project Coordinator of the Ministry of Agriculture said that he had immediately contacted the relevant department to get help for the farmers concerned and promised that this will be given to the farmers as early as possible.