RALPH BAN­WARIE

GML Cor­re­spon­dent

Farm­ers in Va­len­cia are rais­ing alarm over il­le­gal squat­ting, prae­di­al lar­ce­ny and a lack of ba­sic in­fra­struc­ture, with some claim­ing armed squat­ters are bull­doz­ing agri­cul­tur­al lands and sell­ing lots with­out per­mis­sion.

The con­cerns were raised dur­ing a meet­ing with mem­bers of the TTPS East­ern Di­vi­sion, rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture, Land and Fish­eries and the Skills Farm­ers Group.

Among the most se­ri­ous com­plaints came from the Mo­hammed fam­i­ly, who said squat­ters en­tered their 20-acre dairy farm in Tu­rure, San­gre Grande, bull­dozed the land and be­gan di­vid­ing it in­to lots for sale.

The fam­i­ly, which al­so rears goats and cul­ti­vates 10 acres of wa­ter­mel­on, said they nev­er gave per­mis­sion for the ac­tiv­i­ty. They claimed they were threat­ened and guns were point­ed at them when they con­front­ed the squat­ters.

“They are armed. We are afraid,” the Mo­hammeds said.

In­spec­tor Cal­len­der of the Va­len­cia Po­lice Post as­signed Sergeant Ram­nar­ine of the Va­len­cia CID to in­ter­vene. He ad­vised the farm­ers to doc­u­ment the ac­tiv­i­ty and re­port it to po­lice so in­ves­ti­ga­tions could be car­ried out.

The Mo­hammeds al­so re­port­ed cat­tle rustling, say­ing one of their cows was re­cent­ly stolen.

Oth­er farm­ers com­plained about the theft of pro­duce, par­tic­u­lar­ly co­conuts, and said the lack of elec­tric­i­ty in farm­ing ar­eas was cre­at­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties for thieves.

“This prob­lem makes it a haven for thieves to steal their pro­duce,” one farmer said.

A co­conut farmer said prae­di­al lar­ce­ny and reg­u­lar po­lice of­fi­cers were sel­dom seen in the area.

Sergeant Ram­nar­ine, who was re­cent­ly trans­ferred to the Va­len­cia Po­lice Post, said un­marked po­lice ve­hi­cles were con­duct­ing sur­veil­lance in the area.

Farm­ers al­so raised con­cerns about ac­cess to land, stor­age, mar­kets, farm­ers’ badges and il­le­gal quar­ry­ing.

Long-time Va­len­cia farmer Wal­dron said the area faced par­tic­u­lar chal­lenges be­cause some farm­ers oc­cu­py State lands while oth­ers op­er­ate on For­est Re­serves.

He said farm­ers al­so faced dif­fi­cul­ties ac­cess­ing farm­ers’ badges and se­cur­ing land for agri­cul­tur­al use.

Wal­dron re­called a pro­pos­al for about 100 acres in Va­len­cia to be re­served for farm­ers.

He al­so crit­i­cised the de­struc­tion of pro­duc­tive farms for ag­gre­gate ex­trac­tion.

“I had the un­for­tu­nate ex­pe­ri­ence of see­ing a num­ber of pro­duc­tive farm­ers’ farms be­ing bull­dozed for ag­gre­gate prod­ucts. This is very dis­heart­en­ing,” he said.

Skills Farm­ers Group pres­i­dent Bindra Ma­haraj sug­gest­ed farm­ers con­sid­er so­lar en­er­gy where elec­tric­i­ty is un­avail­able. He al­so pro­posed that so­lar lights be im­port­ed with­out tax­es and pur­chased col­lec­tive­ly to re­duce costs.

In­spec­tor Cal­len­der said farm­ers play an es­sen­tial role in en­sur­ing food reach­es house­holds and promised po­lice would make ef­forts to pro­tect them, their live­stock, crops and equip­ment.

Naren­dra Lutch­man, le­gal ad­vis­er to the Min­is­ter of Agri­cul­ture, Land and Fish­eries, said he could not ad­dress all the con­cerns raised but would sub­mit them to the min­is­ter.