Much-needed help for Clonbrook farmers

FARMERS from the East Coast Demerara village of Clonbrook will soon benefit from improved farm-to-market roads and a number of other agriculture projects following a meeting with Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha, on Wednesday.
The meeting saw farmers from the area voicing their daily struggles in their respective farmlands to the minister.
Calls were made for issues regarding livestock, markets for produce, infrastructure, and accessibility to dams and farm-to-market roads to be addressed during the meeting.

Chandpual Ramsaroop, Chairman of the Clonbrook farmers group, told the minister and his team that the farmers in the area are in urgent need of a farm-to-market road to get better access to the backlands where majority of the farms are located.
Additionally, the chairman also made a request for farming equipment and tools to be made accessible to farmers, since many of them cannot afford to purchase tools out of their own pockets.

Ramsaroop explained if more tools are provided, farmers will be able to expand their farms to circulate more income and make room for more food security in the area.
“We planting plenty cash crops at the back here and coconuts and for me I planting 40 acres of cassava and I supply for cassava bread and all them tools [expensive] and if we get it we gone expand more…. not all farmers can afford to but that’s why I request tools,” the man said, adding:
“We talk to him about three weeks ago and he promised we that he will come and today he come and we feel proud that he come and all the promise, we get all the tools that we request and we gone happy about it.”

While no concerns were raised about drainage and irrigation in the area, Ramsaroop noted however, that the koker in Clonbrook is in dire need of maintenance.
On the other hand, Nateram Balkarn, who is a livestock farmer, expressed concerns about the need for more feed and by products for livestock farmers in the area.
Balkarn said: “One of my issues is livestock, I am a livestock farmer, sometimes you got to the mills, you pay $600 a bag today and next month you go back they raise it to a $100 dollars more or $50 and it’s a strain for farmers in Clonbrok, Anns Grove and Behive area here.

He added: “A lot of people do livestock farming and a lot of people does come by me to get feed because when I go to the mills I normally buy 50-60 bags and when people see the bag now they does come to me.”
In response to the concerns that were made, Minister Mustapha told the farmers that a team from the Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC), Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA) and the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) will return to the area to do an assessment and address the concerns that were raised during the meeting.
Additionally he told the farmers, that while the newly-developed oil and gas sector will contribute the country’s development, one must not forget the agriculture sector as it is a bedrock of the economy.