LEYLAND Lewis is a farmer and resident of Naamyrck Village, East Bank Essequibo and since he completed secondary school, he began the simple life of farming.

The 63-year-old was among the men at Salem Koker and supervised the offloading of pineapples he had transported from his farm via boat.

He has 35 acres of farmland at Salem and Hubu backlands and he has crops of pineapples, ground provisions, plantains and bananas.

Lewis came from a long line of farmers, his parents were farmers and he grew up working with them and credited his success to them, because they taught him well and to be patient.

In his younger days, he tried his hands at pork-knocking and carpentry and stayed as a farmer for the most part of his life.

Lewis has been a farmer for more than 40 years and started at age 16, because he knew what to do and was no stranger to hard work.

“Being a farmer is hard work and it teaches patience and it is a humble job, growing and waiting for your crops to sell,” he said.

The farmer stated that he would have a worker with him on the farm on most days, and when he has produce to offload, he would employ about four persons to assist.

Lewis would sell his produce to wholesale buyers from Berbice and they do not sell at markets at all.

“It has been difficult to grow crops because of the adverse weather conditions. We are seeing more rains than before and often the crops would be destroyed and I have to start all over again,” he said.

However, during the last flood, he lost his entire crop but was pleased and thankful when he received a cash grant of $100,000 for farmers and he was able to re-plant to earn.

“Farmers are the backbone of any community and we produce food, but we haven’t been getting the produce as we should and the cost of fertilisers has increased, and there is nothing to cushion these high costs we face,” he said.

He explained that pineapples take 20 to 24 months to fully grow, while cassava takes nine months before it can be harvested and sweet potato takes four to five months to fully ripen.

Lewis stated that farming is hard labour on the farm lands and the dividends do not often add up, but it is the sole source of income and he has to continue, even in rough times.”

“This morning it was raining heavily, can I not wait for the rain to finish so I had to get to the farm and so it goes,” he said.

Lewis disclosed the prices on the market depend on the availability of produce and rainfall has a lot of impact on prices too.

The retired headteacher/farmer
Also in the village is Lallbachan (one name only) who told the Pepperpot Magazine that these days he is retired and would spend some time on his farm.

He spent eight years as a teacher at Parika/Salem Primary School before hanging up his teaching gloves, but he did enjoy his time in the education sector.

Lallbachan gained experience and he certainly enjoyed the methodology of teaching.

The father of one added that he has two grandsons and he lives quite comfortably in Naamryck Village with his family.

He is originally from Essequibo and when he was 19 years old, he and his brother and father left and came to Naamryck where they bought 30 acres of farmland and began farming and settled there.

The 71-year-old related that he has been residing in the village for the past 51 years and back in the days he worked on his father’s farm in Essequibo planting rice.

Lallbachan told the Pepperpot Magazine that because the two main access dams to the farmlands are in deplorable condition; it is easier to go my boat via the drainage canal.

He added that the locals are very nice people who are hard workers, mostly farmers and they grow food and they also aim for self-sufficiency.

Things in the small village are accessible because they have a lot of shops and places of business.