Guyana_Chronicle_Agri_Supplement_Epaper_10_26_2020 by Guyana Chronicle

GUYANA CHRONICLE AGRICULTURE MONTH SUPPLEMENT, FRIDAY OCTOBER 23, 2020

Horticulturist Phulmattie Budhram watering her plants at the shop located at Agriculture Road Railway Embankment, East Coast Demerara

THE COVID-19 pandemic has forced thousands of people into unemployment, and with no stable income to take care of their families, many turned to gardening

â&#x20AC;&#x201C; an area that was largely ignored and stigmatised. It is now one of the key areas geared at revitalising economies around the world, as the

demand for fresh fruits and vegetables is on the increase. As a matter of fact, local hardware stores, between the months of March and July 2020, also reported an increase in sale

for tools and hardware supplies a s consumers in self-isolation TURN TO used their time to comPAGE 11A plete home improvement

GUYANA CHRONICLE AGRICULTURE MONTH SUPPLEMENT, FRIDAY OCTOBER 23, 2020

Hope Estate General Manager, Ricky Roopchand

APPROXIMATELY 15 miles east, outside of the City of Georgetown, and spread out across an expanse of 3,000 acres of some of the most fertile farm lands on Guyana’s low coastal plain, sits the Hope Coconut Industries Limited (HCIL), better known as the Hope Estate. These days the estate’s name, its massive coconut nursery, and the few remaining tall, sweeping, aged coconut trees across its lands are the only remnants that point to what was once largely a coconut cultivation farm, in the 1980s. “Hope Estate was a combination of rice and coconut. It was about 1,000 acres for rice and the rest was coconut; where rice was planted no coconut would go. One part was for rice and one part was for coconut,” said former H C I L General Manager,

to farmers, and a self-help system was introduced, as the cultivation and expansion of coconuts continued. Aside from being sold in its raw form, the coconuts were used to make coconut oil.

the estate. However, they all came for the cash crop, and the estate’s coconut cultivation ebbed out of existence. “When I did a census there in 2010, only seven per cent of the coconut trees were there, 93 per cent were gone. They had about from 30 - 150 farmers who were doing coconuts and they started to do cash crop and then more farmers started to come in but for cash crop,” Persaud shared. The estate would

DEATH Once a thriving operation, the time-intensive nature of the coconut enterprise, coupled with low prices of the products, guided coconut cultivation to its death in the 1990s. “Coconut oil was very cheap, and so because of the amount of money the farmers put into the cultivation, and the Labourers harvesting coconuts on process, Hope Estate in its earlier days it was not something that people could

of the community. It was not just an estate, it was like family,” Persaud expressed. However, staying true to its calling of coconut development, the estate is currently at the heart of an ongoing plan to re-invigorate the coconut industry in Guyana, both through farmers at the estate and farmers across the country.

and falls under the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA). Through partnerships with the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI), the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) and the International T r a d e C o m mission (ITC), the estate, over t h e past

per year.

12,000 seedlings

BIGGEST SELLER Currently, the estate’s biggest seller is the “Suriname Brown”, a “water coconut” species, popular because of its shorter time to mature, which takes approximately 22 months. Other species being grown for seedlings include the Malaysian Dawrf, which takes three years to mature and the Jamaican Tall, which takes five years to mature. This time around, conscious of the challenges farmers face with the time-intensive makeup of the coconut enterprise, the estate is educating farmers on the importance of intercropping with their coconut trees, to make money as they wait on the maturing of the coconut plants. “You don’t get money right away, you have to wait at least five years for re-

Some of the cash crop farmers at Hope Estate harvesting their papayas

Rabindranath Persaud. Now most of the estate lands, over two thirds, is largely dedicated to cash crop farming by private farmers who leased the lands. The estate has some 333 farmers of whom 31 cultivate rice. The remainder do cash crops. The estate is divided into four sections: Hope, Douchfour, Lowlands and Nooten-zuil. The cash crop farming at the estate was initially introduced to supplement the coconut cultivation but instead supplanted it. Coconut cultivation was first introduced to the estate after it was purchased by two brothers, Aman and Amin Sankar, for $74,000, in the 1970s, from then owner, E. M. Walcott. Walcott owned the estate prior to 1934. Indentured labourers worked on the estate, cultivating sugar cane. The estate was later acquired by the Government in 1981 and it was leased

g a i n much out of,” Persaud explained. “The cost to produce the coconut oil was so much more that it was cheaper to bring in oil than to produce oil here, and there were only a few other by-products in Guyana; it was only soap and oil nothing much.” Persaud added. Due to this many of the farmers began to gravitate towards cash crop cultivation as an alternative and it soon became the central focus. “In the process of doing alternative crops, the farmers found that the production of cash crops was more profitable so what they did was cut down the coconut trees and expand on the other agricultural crops,” Persaud related. Soon more and more farmers came to lease lands at

go over two decades without much attention on the coconut cultivation. After he took over the estate as general manager in 2008, Persaud said efforts were made to revitalise interest in coconut with several initiatives but resources were deeply deficient. Notwithstanding its years of hardships and challenges, he said the estate remains a significant facility to the communities it has served and continues to serve. “Apart from the agricultural aspect of it, there is the social structure. Hope Coconut Industries contributed tremendously to the fabric

QUALITY SEEDLINGS “We plan to play a pivotal role in improving the existing coconut industries by supplying quality seedlings to farmers,” said Ricky Roopchand, the estate’s current general manager. Roopchand has been with the estate for the past three years. He met the estate in a dire financial and developmental state but confident he could turn things around. With coconuts and coconut products being the third highest agricultural export, the coconut industry here has been proving itself deserving of consideration for investments and development. The coconut industry is also projected to experience massive growth globally in the coming years and plans are afoot to ensure Guyana benefits from this boom. The Hope Estate is a semi-autonomous agency

three years, has built and is managing a robust coconut seedling nursery, the nucleus for Guyana’s wider coconut industry. The facility’s nursery, managed by the estate’s small staff of just seven persons, currently has the capacity to produce 100,000 seedlings per year. The estate has been working towards not only maintaining that capacity but expanding it by embarking on the establishment of two additional sub-unit nurseries. Aside from increasing capacity, the opening of the sub-units are also being done with the aim of taking the estate’s services closer to its largest customer bases, which come from Region Four and Two. The sub-units will be located in Kairuni on the Soesdyke Highway, and in Charity on the Essequibo Coast, each having a maximum capacity of

turns, it’s a long-term in- v e s t ment,” Roopchand noted Leading by example, the estate has established a demonstration plot, which currently sees some 33 farmers being involved in coconut cultivation and intercropping. “The plot will be used as a germplasm for the supply of seed nuts to HCIL nursery in the future,” Roopchand explained. Also towards encouraging growth in the industry, the estate’s management has been advocating for the creation of the National Coconut Development Board and noted the need for an agriculture-based bank that focuses on loans to farmers. Several infrastructural works are also ongoing at the estate to better equip it to serve the needs of farmers and the industry.

GUYANA CHRONICLE AGRICULTURE MONTH SUPPLEMENT, FRIDAY OCTOBER 23, 2020

GUYANA CHRONICLE AGRICULTURE MONTH SUPPLEMENT, FRIDAY OCTOBER 23, 2020 FROM PAGE 2A

projects. As a result of worldwide shutdowns and curfews, there was a surge in Do-It-Yourself (DIY) gardening as consumers found new ways to improve their living space and keep themselves entertained during isolation. “Vegetables and citrus plants were the ones in demand for about four months straight and then things cooled down as things retuned to normalcy,” Horticulturist, Phulmattie Budhram told the Guyana Chronicle. Budhram manages her plant shop at Agriculture Road, Railway Embankment, East Coast Demerara. Budhram said things have since slowed down but her grafted fruit plants are always in demand since mini mature trees only need small spaces to grow. For persons picking up the tools of the trade for the first time, getting started seems daunting, but, as the Horticulturist would say, the hard work in the beginning really pays off in the end. Budhram emphasised that

no one needs to be a farmer to reap the benefits of homegrown produce. It can all start from the comfort of a sunny window and a bit of extra time and anyone is capable of growing a few vegetables and fruits at home. She explained that plants need care and there is no such thing as a low-maintenance plant, because gardens only bloom when time is invested in them. Budhram advises that the humid environment is great, especially if someone has his/her own greenhouse. However, she said aspiring gardeners should use potting soil and check on their plants every day while all weeds should be removed. She explained that plants, like people, are less immune to disease and insects and they should receive adequate amount of sunlight, care and nutrients to their roots. When planting is done indoor, Budhram explained that all plants require well-draining soil, which means a pot with holes in the bottom is needed, and some

small stones in the bottom of the pot before adding soil to let water drain through the stones. The horticulturist said that while each plant may grow best in a slightly different soil environment, an all-purpose potting soil is suitable for a variety of growing purposes. Some of the plants Budhram recommended could be grown at home include: tomatoes, cucumber, all varieties of pepper, callalu, broccoli, eschalot and grafted lime and lemon. As part of Agriculture month and ‘plant a tree initiative’, the businesswoman said she is distributing hundreds of seedlings and plants free of cost to persons who visit her shop this month. Budhram, a mother of four, also loves sharing her knowledge freely about the process involved in planting fruit trees, flower trees, vegetables, peppers, spices, coconut trees and many other plants.

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GUYANA CHRONICLE AGRICULTURE MONTH SUPPLEMENT, FRIDAY OCTOBER 23, 2020