Crop production at Mount Poyer, St Lucy – part of the government’s Farmers Empowerment and Enfranchisement Drive (FEED) – is being hampered by “deplorable” access roads, several small farmers there have told Barbados TODAY.
They say the cart roads leading to their plots are bad which prevents water tankers from reaching their property to fill their tanks, and some farmers complained that though they operated near the main road their tanks were still not being filled.
Cletus Gustave said he was getting frustrated as it could stop him from being self-sufficient.
“The cart road through by us is very bad. The truck drivers complain that the roads are too bad and that is why they cannot get to us,” he said. “The situation is getting very frustrating. I have cucumbers, sweet potato, okras and cassava planted and I would not like to see the crops die. As a young man, I am trying to create a livelihood for myself, so this project is very important, not only to develop myself but to prove that agriculture can be very useful.”
The cart roads, whose surface were already uneven, have become impassable owing to flooding, with as much as eight inches of water turning the tracks into streams every time it rained, they said.
“It is in a deplorable state and when the rain falls, vehicles cannot come down through here,” said one farmer. “The moisture stays in the ground for a few days and it goes into a week to two weeks that you can’t get water. We tried to get this road done over a year and [our concerns] seem to be going on deaf ears.”
Grantley Rock said he complained on more than one occasion about the road to the Barbados Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (BADMC), the state-owned farming services and marketing board.
He told Barbados TODAY: “Last year I went to the [BADMC] office [in Fairy Valley, Christ Church] and complained about the water and road issue. Nobody came to see anything and this is a big problem. This is nine to 11 months that I couldn’t get in the ground . . . and all I hear is a lot of mock talk from people in positions. In the initial stages, things were good but [the issue arose] when the rain began to fall. After the rain, there is a drying process and that caused more problems when the trucks tried to get in there and had difficulties.”
In the process of killing weeds, the farmer said he was filling several bottles of water at a nearby standpipe to mix chemicals to spray on his one-acre plot.
“Government is who set up this programme and I believe that they should have put things in place before anybody get any land. If you start wrong, you end wrong,” Rock added.
“Planting plants and seeing them dying is frustrating to see,” added Tramaine Crawford. “Then to hear that the younger generation is not trying to do anything.”
Efforts to reach a BADMC official for comment were unsuccessful. However, Barbados TODAY has learned there were plans in progress to address the issues after the farmers met with a BADMC consultant who assured them the problems would be fixed.
When a Barbados TODAY team visited the northern farming district, workmen were observed placing marl along one of the roads.
Farmers who operate along the main road said they too were having problems getting their tanks filled. They claimed that only certain farmers’ tanks were being filled when the water trucks visited the area.
“If government is giving people water free, why is it that I am not getting any and I am on the top road? The truck comes and gives one set of people water and then goes along about their business,” one farmer said with others concurring.
“This is not fair,” said another farmer. “I need water to advance my business. We see the trucks coming but we are not getting any water.”
Farmers also said they were experiencing issues with getting their lands ploughed and called for better communication between the Barbados Water Authority, the BADMC and farmers.
Barbados TODAY also reached out to the BWA for comment about its water tanker service but no response was forthcoming.
Towards the end of the dry season last May, some farmers complained about inadequate service from the BADMC’s water tank operators, while others pointed fingers at fellow farmers, accusing them of being “greedy” and abusing the water supply system.
The Mia Mottley administration launched the FEED programme in April 2019 to accommodate first-time farmers seeking to establish agricultural enterprises. BADMC was tasked with planning, implementation and management of FEED.
(BT)
