By Naomi Parris
RESIDENTS and farmers of Mocha Arcadia, on Tuesday, complained about the severe flooding, poor infrastructure and lack of drainage and irrigation services in their communities.
These concerns were raised during a community outreach during which Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha, was told by farmers that they have been put out of work, since many of the farmlands in the area are in terrible condition, making it almost impossible for them to farm on the lands.
Sherryann Deabreu, a farmer and mother of six, told the minister that during the rainy seasons she is unable to provide for her family, since her farm and produce are often destroyed by stagnant flood waters as a result of poor drainage and irrigation in the area.
“When rain fall, the farmers are being affected; when is the dry season, it is okay because we plant and we get to reap. But when the rainy season step in, that is where everything goes down the drain for us,” the woman said, adding: “It does be hard that we got to take the money back out of our pockets to buy back seeds, to get the land clean back and go back into agriculture again.”

The woman, in sharing her daily plight, said: “It has become frustrating when you have produce, done bearing and then water come up on them and they destroy. We cannot reap them to sell them.”

Expressing a similar dilemma, Miranda Lorde said, “The drainage is really bad, it reach to a stage where farmers cannot farm no more because every time we getting major loses and it’s causing a distress in the housing community as well too.”
Meanwhile, a cattle farmer, who gave his name as “Oswin”, said he too has suffered a loss, since he no longer has access to his farm in the backlands because of the poor infrastructure and the aftermath of severe flooding.
“My issue is that I’m not getting pounding of my animals; I have lands for my animals but the land is flood. I cannot access the land because the land is flood; I can only use it when I get a real dry weather.”
The farmer added that such has been very costly for him since his animals are left to roam the streets and graze in public pastures.
“It is very costly to me. A lot of times I have to be selling my animals or getting to pay the vet to fix them because when they get into the housing area, they are being hurt by residents,” he said.

SUPPORT

Meanwhile, in addressing the farmers, Minister Mustapha said, “I want to assure you that we will support you and we will work with you to ensure that we resolve these problems. I will come back here within a period of time to ensure that all the things that we are saying here is completed.”
In relation to the complaints of the drainage and irrigation systems in the area, the minister said a team from the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) will return to the community to assess the amount of work needed to be done in the community.
Additionally, he told farmers that the ministry is currently working to ensure that all agriculture stakeholders, especially farmers, receive the best services to spark more interest in the agriculture sector.

“Our focus, our objective is to ensure that we now reignite people’s interest back into agriculture. There is a saying around the country, since we have oil and gas, that those will bring in lots of money, but, that will not be the case, because one day those resources will be exhausted but agriculture is here to stay,” he said.