Rad­hi­ca De Sil­va

Se­nior Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Sev­er­al months af­ter re­ceiv­ing starter homes, $20,000 grants, and two-acre plots through the Youth in Agri­cul­ture Home­stead Pro­gramme, young farm­ers in Chatham are call­ing for ur­gent sup­port to fix poor drainage and in­ad­e­quate road ac­cess that con­tin­ue to block progress.

Joel Wil­son, of Diego Mar­tin, who re­ceived a two-acre plot on Chatham Beach Road, was seen plant­i­ng hot pep­pers with eight of his cousins on his Chatham Beach Road plot.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Wil­son said most of the $20,000 grant he re­ceived had been used to clear sprawl­ing trees from the land.

He ex­plained that flood­ing and a lack of prop­er ac­cess roads had made cul­ti­va­tion dif­fi­cult, so he had yet to reap his first crop.

“There’s no drainage. Plen­ty wa­ter run­ning on the land. We try­ing, but flood is a prob­lem. We need prop­er drainage in the front and back,” Wil­son said, hold­ing trays of seedlings.

“We need help with the roads too. The roads have some work to do, but we try­ing.”

De­spite these chal­lenges, Wil­son ex­pressed sup­port for the home­stead pro­gramme and urged the Gov­ern­ment to con­tin­ue it.

He said many of the grad­u­ates from the first batch of the pro­gramme are still work­ing on their plots, some in groups, help­ing each oth­er with farm­ing tasks.

Wil­son said he com­plet­ed the two-year agri­cul­ture train­ing pro­gramme and was among what he es­ti­mat­ed to be 170 to 200 grad­u­ates. He said about 30 to 40 starter homes had been com­plet­ed in Chatham.

“We not see­ing the sup­port on the ground. The grant was giv­en, but we need as­sis­tance. They say bil­lions go­ing in­to agri­cul­ture, but we not see­ing it here,” he said.

He called on the Min­is­ter of Agri­cul­ture Ravi Rati­ram to vis­it and see the on­go­ing work and chal­lenges. “It’s not just about giv­ing us a house. We went UTT, we did the work, and we still get­ting prob­lems. But we not giv­ing up.”

Wil­son said he and his cousins were sup­port­ing each oth­er, ro­tat­ing work on each oth­er’s plots. He en­cour­aged oth­er young peo­ple to get in­volved in agri­cul­ture but warned it re­quired ded­i­ca­tion.

“You have to love it. If I didn’t love it and didn’t have help, I wouldn’t still be in it.”

He said flood­ing con­tin­ues to be the biggest threat and urged for quick­er gov­ern­ment re­sponse to en­sure the pro­gramme’s long-term suc­cess.

Mean­while, an­oth­er farmer, Fe­lix Jeromy, echoed Wil­son’s con­cerns. Jeromy said many par­tic­i­pants have not been able to start be­cause the land re­mains un­cleared and roads are not pass­able.

“This pro­gramme is a very good pro­gramme once we get the sup­port that we’re sup­posed to get,” Jeromy said. “The gov­ern­ment said once you go through the pro­gram, they will as­sist with funds to start up. But a lot of us have to spend from our own pock­ets.”

Jeromy point­ed out that many plots are still over­run with trees and thick brush, mak­ing them un­us­able. “You need prop­er roads and prop­er drainage for them to start. If you watch my cousin’s land, it get­ting flood­ed.