Farmers on the Retrench Estate in San Fernando are calling for a formal investigation into what they describe as land grabbing by a private contractor allegedly linked to a former government minister.
During a protest yesterday, Retrench Farmers’ Association president Nigel Bowen said farmers have been planting crops such as sweet potatoes, corn, and citrus on the 70-acre block of land between the Solomon Hochoy Highway, the M2 Ring Road and the old Caroni air strip for over 30 years. He said the farmers had formed a cooperative and applied repeatedly for leases, but even though his name appears on the cadastral sheet and he has a verification code, he has not yet obtained a lease.
Documents obtained by Guardian Media show his name on the cadastral sheet. A notice issued in 2008 also shows farmer Mahase Samuel had been occupying lands there since 2008.
However, Bowen said last week, the contractor came back on the lands and tried to get them to vacate. He now wants the Government to investigate the contractor and provide leases to all farmers who are doing active farming on the agricultural plot.
“We’ve been applying since 2013. Every time we go, they say to apply again. Last January when I went, they say they have no record,” Bowen said.
“They’re frustrating farmers all across the country by denying leases, and we believe it is deliberate,” he added.
He said now that the government had changed, he wanted an investigation into their plight as well. Meanwhile, Samuel said he has occupied the land since 2002.
“I have corn, sweet potatoes but so far they haven’t ploughed down my crops. They graded higher up,” he said.
Vice president of the group, Garrett Greenidge, said the contractor claims he was awarded a 20-acre portion of the land by the former government. Greenidge said this section includes actively cultivated fields.
“We were told we weren’t here, which is false. We were here planting. The contractor said he got the land because he has finance and we don’t,” Greenidge said. “If this was about farming, he wouldn’t bulldoze sweet potatoes and mango trees. You don’t bring in a D6 bulldozer for agriculture.”
Greenidge said prior to 2025 General Election, they held over a dozen meetings with the contractor, which ended without resolution.
The farmers say since April they have taken their case again to officers at the Commissioner of State Lands office, who have been cooperative.
“We have made reports to multiple ministries, including the Office of the Prime Minister and the Ombudsman,” Greenidge said.
However, he said they are yet to get a response from Commissioner of State Lands Paul Drakes.
The farmers also alleged that the contractor returned to the lands last week with an offer to relocate them to another part of the estate — a proposal they rejected.
“They want to take us from our plots and fruit trees and give us five acres somewhere else,” Bowen said.
“But we’ve been here for decades. We’ve developed this land. We not moving. We want the minister to hear our plight and give us some relief,” he said.
He noted that 30 farmers work the land, organised under a registered agricultural cooperative formed in 2010. Although they are not currently pursuing legal action, they said they remain hopeful that the Government will hear their case.
“We’ve spent over $70,000 already,” said Greenidge.
“We believe this Government can resolve this through the right process. All we want is fairness—the lease we’ve applied for and compensation for what was destroyed.”
He added, “We need the ministry to investigate and stop this. This is not just about us—there are farmers across the country being blocked from leases while land is given to contractors with connections. You can’t feed the country if you’re treating farmers like this.”
Attempts to contact Minister of Agriculture Ravi Ratiram for comment were unsuccessful, as calls and messages to his phone went unanswered.
