A Guardian Media team got a surprise in the eastern village of Plum Mitan on Thursday.
Almost two dozen angry farmers blocked the path of the team on our arrival. A few of them held placards.
“D Food Basket closed down,” one of them said.
Another declared, “No Bridge, No Food.”
It turned out that they got wind of the visit by Guardian Media and quickly decided to hold an impromptu demonstration to highlight the worrying state of an access bridge to the community’s farmlands.
And while the main purpose of the visit was to focus on an announcement by farmers of rising food costs due to flooding, Guardian Media soon realised there were many issues that are now forcing the ordinary consumer to pay the price.
“Plum Mitan is a food basket, 45 per cent of the people who go into Macoya and Port-of-Spain markets come from here, so we need assistance to get this bridge fixed. Too long we have heard monies have been allocated but nothing has been done,” said Ramraj Samaroo. Samaroo showed that the bridge was on the brink of collapse and had sunk so low that the water under the bridge now covers it during heavy rainfall.
Most of the entourage then followed the news team into the farming community, where we were told almost 300 farmers grow their crops. They took the team to a water channel and it’s there, among the water hyacinths and other invasive vegetation, we met Khushilal Sooknanan and his crew.
Their job is to clean the waterways for the farmers but they believe their employers, the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries, could make their job easier and more efficient.
“Our work is very important to the farmers but as you saw, we are doing it by hand. By hand, this water channel will take us about three months to clean. If we had the machine, this could be done in a day and a half,” said Sooknanan, who added that he could not believe in the year 2022 they are still operating under these conditions.
In another part of the farming community, Curt Seedanee said the recent heavy rainfall had cost him over $100,000. Seedanee isn’t only blaming the clogged water channels but the pumps in the area.
There are two pump sites - one works, the other doesn’t. At the site of the latter, Seedanee explained that the pumps were removed in 2020, with the promise that they would be replaced. However, a smaller temporary pump was installed instead and they say with the volume of rainfall being experienced, it is not fit for purpose.
“This is just down to bad management. They assured us they were going to put down a big pump, it had three 18-inch pumps and now they put a 12-inch.”
The paw paw farmer said if the Agriculture Ministry had kept their word, the flooding they experienced in August and October could have been avoided and they wouldn’t now be seeking to recoup their losses by adjusting their prices.
“Everything will have to pass on to the consumer, watch paw paw price, it reaches $5 wholesale but that could have remained $3 if the system worked,” Seedanee added.
Meanwhile, Bridgelal Singh said farmers have had to endure precipitous rises in the cost of seeds and chemicals.
“Since I started in farming to now, things have gone up almost 1,000 per cent. A 50-pound bag of salt is $350, that used to be less than $100,” Singh explained.
Singh said the consumer will have to pay more.
“Most of the vegetables will go up,” Singh said, while also complaining about the pumps, “That is what does mash we up boy, I lose plenty this year already.”
And while the men and women said they are still in love with the profession, they said it’s getting hard for them to keep the same passion they once had or to motivate others.
“My son done tell me he not doing any farming,” one man said while tending to his bodi plants.
Contacted, Agriculture Minister Kazim Hosein assured he will reach out to the affected farmers to find a solution to the pump and bridge issues. He said he has been in office for only a few months and was unaware of these issues. He said having been told of the issues, he will meet with the farmers to find a solution.
