About 20 farmers are calling on the Minister of Agriculture to have the access roads and drainage properly done throughout the span of agricultural lands that they are currently farming in the Exchange, Couva, area.
Speaking with the T&T Guardian yesterday, farmer Kenneth Parris, who is also the vice chairman of the County Agricultural Consultative Community, said that just over a year ago a contractor was contracted by the Government to run pipelines through the lands for a wastewater project. He added that since the project, it has been downhill for them.
"We had very good access roads here. Roads like a highway, where two vehicles could have passed alongside each other. Now, with the rains coming in the roads are now deplorable and impassable in some parts, making it very difficult for us. We cannot come in with our vehicles and we cannot transport our crops as we want to. The roads are falling apart," Parris said.
"The drains were about six feet deep and now they are all filled with silt, causing flooding," he added.
The farm lands span for about three to four miles between Couva and Orange Valley. The lands were part of a VSEP package offered by Caroni (1975) Ltd.
Another farmer, retired assistant police commissioner Stephen Ramsubhag, said that earlier this year their crops were destroyed by bushfire and now they fear that their crops will be destroyed by floods.
"We have sent letters to all–the ministry, the agricultural office in Chase Village, the Ministry of Works and even the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation but nothing has been done. Nobody taking responsibility or making any kind of movement to fix the roads and drainage. That's all we want," Ramsubhag said.
Ramsubhag said he believes that the State should hold the contractor responsible for their deplorable conditions and woes. "We want immediate action. The State should intervene now."
Farmer Etwaroo Ganesh said he has been farming the land for the past four years. "We want to plant but we need some kind of encouragement to do so. We plant cassava, sweet potatoes, watermelons, pumpkin and plantain here but it has become very difficult and frustrating for us," Ganesh said.
Another farmer from the Depot Road, Longdenville, area, Miradai Seetahal, is also pleading on behalf of farmers there for the ministry to assist with problems they have encountered with respect to irrigation.