"If is not flood, is thief."So says PRO of the Maloney Food Crop Farmers Association Kumar Ramdass.Ramdass said praedial larceny and flooding were demoralising farmers and forcing them to reconsider their choice of livelihood.Speaking with the T&T Guardian last week at the Ministry of Food Production's Lopinot/Bon Air West Constituency Farmers Outreach Clinic at the Bon Air West Community Centre, at Corner Blue Mussel Street and Conch Shell Drive, Bon Air,
Arouca, he said: "Right now praedial larceny is over-high.""It's so high and so bad that we feeling to get out of the game, because if is not flood, is thief."If it's not thief, it's weather. It was a real pressure to get water with that weather gone by there and they dug some ponds for us but they're bone dry.He said a farm was polluting the Arima river.
"There's not a fish in the river could live. We called the EMA. So far, nothing."Nobody helping us, government come, government go and I'm there in the land 34 years now farming and up to now I cannot get a lease."Ramdass said farmers were also forced to give up a piece of land at the north-east corner of the Maloney Farming Project for the Baptist community with a promise of leased land, while the Baptist community received a lease in less than a year and they had been waiting for more than 15 years.
He said the farmers needed streetlights and cameras as thieves were stealing, scrapping and burning vehicles in their community.Maloney Food Crop Farmers Association secretary Rakeem Abdullah said the farmers wanted proper pitched roads so that their vehicles wouldn't be damaged further.He said besides lights and cameras, farmers who wanted to do green-house farming, needed water, electricity, electric pumps and proper heating systems.
Abdullah said farmers took these issues to the ministry's meet-the-farmers meetings where they received assistance with land administration and other matters. He said they did get help from the ministry compared to other communities as they were proactive.Responding to the farmers' concerns in a telephone interview on Monday, Food Production Minister Devant Maharaj said: "If they have concerns I would first ask them to utilise the normal channels and communicate with the ministry rather than going to the media.
"I can't know about it if they're complaining to the media. Once I get a complaint or an issue, I will treat with it."He said it was his experience that this may be due to "administrative glitches" and some managers may not be aware of the farmers' plight, but once it was brought to their attention it would be sorted out.