…agriculturalist urges Guyanese to get back to the soil during pandemic

THE Young Visionaries of the Buxton Museum, in collaboration with the Buxton Farmers, held a two-day farmers’ market on Thursday and Friday as a means of pushing residents to get back into the organic way of life.

The Guyana Chronicle visited the market, which was held in the village’s museum compound where Cletus Hiles, who is the youngest board member and also the vice-president of the local group, stated that idea sparked after he had started a kitchen garden within the compound of the museum. “Since I was younger, Buxton has had a history for agriculture and so forth but as I grew up I haven’t seen much agriculture around the place so I said from this museum, I can start something and to an extent, a few person will be motivated to start their own garden [hence] I started my own garden in the museum itself,” he said.

He added that he then thought of the farmers who are stationed in the back dam of the village, who have not been receiving a lot of support for their hard work and decided to collaborate with them.

“And the idea stroke me that there are actually persons who are planting, however, they are not getting the attention that they need because they are stationed in the backdam of the village and persons would not go till there to see what they want to buy,” Hiles said.
Hiles, who is also a graduate from the Guyana School of Agriculture noted (GSA), said that he wanted to invest in his village and found that the museum would be the perfect central point and public place where farmers can market and sell their produce.

He noted that the museum advertised the event on social media, and on local platforms like the usual village shops and placed posters at various points in the village.
He noted that the idea could be adapted along the East Coast corridor as well as across the entire country to assist the local small-scale farmers.

“We should expect that this farmers’ market would be something very consistent because farmers are not getting as much attention as they need and they are very important and it sucks to see that persons are now realising the importance of organic food when there is a pandemic going around,” Hiles said.

He further stated that, “food is imperative for life, you need to eat to live. Anybody could plant something from the time you eat, keep that seed and plant it …I think its very important that person recognise how food could be grown by their own hands.”