Local farmer still committed to the work despite heavy losses

AS a boy more than 70 years ago, Mr Choomanlall (only name) can still remember the days he’d help his parents out on their farm, especially on the weekends and when there was no school.

Perhaps his love for farming stemmed from these experiences, but it was his own success with his produce that made him stick with this kind of work.

At one time, he was known in Charity as the farmer who produced the most pears for the market, at times supplying as many as 5,000 pears a week. But like many other farmers in David James Scheme, flooding last year killed the majority of his pear trees.

Added to constant flooding in the area, Choomanlall decided to scale down his operations because of advancing age. This doesn’t mean, though, that he wouldn’t help with the work that he’s hired the labourers to do.

Born and raised on the Essequibo Coast, Choomanlall, 78, was raised at Abraham’s Creek in the Pomeroon River and then moved to what is now David James Scheme in 1984.

“All we do in here is farming. My main crop is pear, but the flood killed most of them last year. I also plant greens like bora, ochroes, and other crops. But now I can’t do the work myself so I hire labourers,” the father of five explained.

The main challenge for him is constant flooding, and it has had such an impact on him that at times, he wishes that he would have taken the teaching job that his father was getting for him as a young boy. But he was so into farming that he insisted he will not teach. “When I saw the flooding last year, I felt to myself I should’ve taken the teaching job. Today, I would’ve been receiving a government pension or something.”

But Choomanlall agrees that he should not allow feelings of regret to overwhelm him at this point in his life because apart from the challenges with the flood, he has experienced a fulfilling farming career.

“I planted a lot of pear. At one time, I produced the most pears in Charity. Before 2006, I would sell 4 to 5,000 pears a week that I would take to Charity. Now, people would come in to buy.

Before the flood last year, I would pick 2,000 to 2,500 per week,” he reflected.

Choomanlall can also recall being able to take out 100 parcels of bora to sell at the Charity market. “Today [February 21, 2022], I took out eight parcels and all was [sic] sold out. Since the flood, it’s only today I reaped something, apart from the coconuts I sell,” he expressed.

Choomanlall had just returned home from selling his bora when the team from Pepperpot Magazine visited him. “I love farming. I used to farm with my parents and we used to produce a lot of coffee. On Saturdays and Sundays, we would go help them pick,” he reflected.

Satisfied
Choomanlall loves his community in spite of the hardships that the farmers have to endure. He focuses on the fact that the community is much more developed now, compared to 37 years ago when he moved in. “I like this community; the place is much better. All my life I did farming because I don’t like to work with people.”

He received $100,000 from government as part of flood relief and said he was very thankful for it. “I am satisfied with that, but as compared to the rice farmers, government gave them $80,000 per acre. Some of the rice farmers did not lose their crops, but they applied for relief, whereas some farmers, bigger than me, only got $50,000. That wasn’t fair,” he said.

Still, Choomanlall said he would not blame the government for this. “It’s the people that they sent to do the work. To me, they couldn’t even do the work. Three girls came and asked to see my ID card and later called again on the phone to get the number. I told them if I was their boss, I would have fired them.”

Choomanlall has been encouraging the younger farmers to form an organisation similar to the one of which he was a part when he first came to the community. Through it, he was able to make representation for the community and then receive help through the regional administration.

“Today, I feel that the government is doing reasonably well. I did volunteer work with the PPP (People’s Progressive Party) when I was a young man, although I never became a member of the party. One thing that bothers me though, is that they said they are going to renegotiate the ExxonMobil deal during the election campaign. I would like to see them do it,” Choomanlall shared.
Sharing what he believes makes a good farmer, he said: “You have to be dedicated and love the job that you’re doing. You have to look after your crops every day.”