Essequibo farmer sees little hope in farming as climate crisis worsens
News
By Romario Blair
Kaieteur News – It is no secret that the worsening climate crisis has had a devastating effect on Guyana’s agriculture sector. In the Pomeroon for instance, farming seems to be permanently disrupted, after more than a year of consistent rainfall and flooding.
Farmer Derick Alli and his wife Bridget
Derick Alli, who has been farming from the age of seven, is just one of the many farmers, who has been feeling the effects of the worsening climate crisis. Alli usually cultivates 40 acres of farmland, which includes citrus, cash crops, coconuts, bananas and plantains, in his home community of Merylborough, located in the Lower Pomeroon River.
For over five decades, farmer Alli has toiled the fields, and has reaped sweet rewards in the process. With the rewards from farming, Alli, together with his wife, Bridget, successfully raised their eight children in the Riverine community of Merylborough, located along the bank of the Pomeroon River.
During a recent interview with Kaieteur News, Mr. Alli, now 65 years old, revealed that it is nearly impossible to compete in the farming business, given the recent turn of events.
A natural inclination to farm
Alli revealed that at the age of 10, his father passed away, leaving 10 children behind. As things became difficult financially, Alli was left no choice but to pick up where his father had left-off on the farm. He said that by age 16 he was out of school, since his other siblings grew increasingly dependent on him.
Farmer Derick Alli says even the coconut industry has been impacted by effects of climate change
He revealed, “I had all the rest of my siblings behind me so by age 16, I had to leave school to work to send them to school, and I had to support my mother. Things were difficult then because when I was going to school I had to wash and wear one pants and one shirt to school. We were still kids then but we didn’t have weekends off because it was on the farm all the time.”
Alli told Kaieteur News that he took a break from farming in the 1970s, in pursuit of several other careers. But he soon realised that he was cut out for farming, and thus returned to the industry. He added, “One of the reasons I stuck to farming is because I don’t like being employed by other people. I like being my own boss…and with farming there are a lot of benefits – for one you get your own products, anything you need you plant it yourself.”
For over 50 years, he said that he had comfortably enjoyed farming as his primary means of income. However, he is worried that the industry he once enjoyed is spiralling out of control.
Crippled by constant flood
Alli pointed out that during the year 2021, he was hardly productive as his farm was constantly flooded. When asked to describe the extent to which he was affected, Alli said, “In some cases I’ve lost entire crops. From last year, when the flood began initially, I had three acres of plantain that I was cutting from. That flood came in and killed everything, from the grown plants to the young ones, to date I’m not cutting any produce … and we have farmers in the Upper Pomeroon who have suffered severe losses as compared to those in the Lower Pomeroon area… Most of those farmers that did permanent crop have lost their entire crops.”
The sixty-five-year-old farmer also explained that throughout the greater part of this year, the rains and flooding have prevented much progress on the farmlands. As a result, Alli said that things have hardly changed for the better. “Things haven’t changed from last year to now. For last year, we were flooding consistently, and even the greater part of this year, we’ve seen more rain than anticipated. Right now, there are a lot of bushes and sogginess on the land because of the consistent rains; we cannot plant anything right now. Only the large farmers can afford that. We are at a loss as to how to get back to farming,” said Alli.
Alli told Kaieteur News that he finds himself in quite a dilemma, since his primary source of income is slowly descending into hopelessness. “Because of the spiralling cost of living, you cannot purchase anything but the needs… and it’s difficult knowing that the land is there, but because of the flooding you can’t work it as you wish,” he added.
Need for long-term comprehensive plan
Granted that the effects of the climate crisis are worrying, Alli stressed the need for a long-term comprehensive plan – one that is geared at combating floods, and improving flood recovery. He said that while the one-off cash grant is a good initiative, it is still insufficient for recovery. He is concerned that he has not heard of any comprehensive plan to date.
As such he concluded, “The one-off cash grant cannot make it. We need a sustainable plan. The government needs to put a better financial system in place for farmers so they can access cash for recovery. The effects of flooding within the Pomeroon is just massive, even the coconut industry has been affected. We need to see on the ground, and in these affected farms, more representatives from the regional level and from the Civil Defence Commission,” the farmer asserted.