-Laluni farmer, Morris Ferreira tells his story

IT is said that the greatest gifts a parent can give their child are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence. For Morris Ferreira, the moment he held his first child in his arms he knew those were the gifts he wanted to bestow upon him and his future children.

Ferreira, a father of six, like many of the hardworking men in the small Amerindian village of Laluni on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway, first began his career at the Demerara Tobacco Company Inc.

At that time, Ferreira who is now in his mid-70s was working long hours as a security guard to make ends meet.

“You know you work with people, you barely earn something to carry you through the week and in me time I use to do security work at the tobacco company. It was hard,” Ferreira said during a recent interview with the Guyana Chronicle.

With the need for an additional income to provide for his family, Ferreira decided to begin farming and with just a small plot of land and a handful of tools, he planted his first batch of oranges, which he began selling to make an extra dollar.

“When I first began it was hard because I had to begin from small. I began with oranges and right now we got cherries, we got the cash crop like balanjay and pepper,” he said before adding, “It’s hard work. It’s axe work, manual labour, but I liked it.”

Ferreira recalled working long hours on his farm and then clocking in at nights for his security job at the tobacco company, dedicating his time to ensure that his children and wife were well taken care of.

“I worked hard, really hard to see them get the best, and you know they went to school and some of them branched out and did their own thing, but I always made sure they were self-sufficient. They all have they own farms,” he added.

“I’m proud of them especially because they are doing other things and they are still farming,” he told this publication with a smile.
Together, the Ferreira family owns just about 25 acres of farmland aback of the Laluni Creek. They also reside on the land but in separate homes.

He said himself and his late wife taught their children from an early age to always be self-sufficient and independent by way of agriculture.

For Ferreira, farming is more than planting a crop here and there. He emphasised that agriculture is the foundation on which he built his family. He hopes that the family’s tradition of farming will continue for generations to come.

“One of my granddaughters, she just graduated from one of the GOAL [Guyana Online Academy of Learning] and you know I’m proud, but you know what, she has her own lil piece of farm where she grows cherries,” he said.

While he is often told that he should “take it easy and slow down,” he still takes to the farm regularly, tending to his owns crops and sometimes those of his children.