Agriculture, Local Govt Ministries to collaborate on establishment of ranger squad

…52-74 NDC only entity with cattle/rice conflict – Mustapha

The Agriculture and Local Government Ministries will be collaborating on the establishment of a ranger squad that will operate in areas where rice is grown in close proximity to where animals are being reared.

This agreement was met on Saturday between Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha and Local Government and Regional Development Minister Nigel Dharamlall when they met with rice farmers on the Corentyne.
Rice and animal farmers in the 52/74 Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) have been at loggerheads over cattle damaging rice and the impounding of the animals.
Following the 2020 floods, the Agriculture Ministry had put systems in place to save animals that were dying in flood waters in the savannahs. The savannahs were flooded with water from the Canje River which was overflowing its banks as a result of continuous rainfall inland.

As hundreds were being brought to dry land, crop farmers started to complain and scores of cattle and small animals were being taken to the pounds daily.
This forced the Government to close all pounds as the animal farmers appealed for intervention.
The Home Affairs Ministry simultaneously revoked all stray catchers’ licences.
Recently animal farmers have been reporting instances of the impounding of animals and have also provided video evidence of their animals being picked up from dams (mud roads) and taken to the pound under the pretext that they are damaging crops.
In the wake of rising tension between the two groups in the NDC area, the Agriculture Minister met separately with them.

Quoting the law, one cattle farmer, Krissondat Persaud, said if animals go into your field, a person can impound it themselves or get persons to do it.
Another rice farmer at the meeting with rice farmers claimed that he had to pay the animal catchers to impound animals that were on his farm, and the animals were released following instructions from the NDC.
According to Dhannyram Persaud called “Black Boy”, he spoke with the NDC Chairman and also showed him videos of animals in his rice field.
“The Chairman told me to carry the animals to the pound. I had to pay the catchers to do the job, now who would give me back my money?” he asked.
When animals are impounded, the owners are required to pay a fee for their release. The holder of the pound and in this case, it is the NDC, gets 50 per cent of the fee and the other half goes to the person who suffered damages.
According to rice farmer George Thompson, he cultivates rice nearest to the savannah and every day cattle go into his rice fields and damage his crop.
Noting that Government assisted with $14 million to construct a fence to keep the animals in the pasture, he said the animals still find themselves in the rice fields.
Government had spent the money to fence 17,000 acres of savannah land for cattle and small ruminants.
The rice farmers claimed that the animal farmers have cut the fence and are deliberately letting the animals out.

Act responsibly
However, Minister Mustapha noted that it is an age-old problem in the NDC area. He said this problem does not exist in other communities even though cattle and rice are there.
“In Region Five [Mahaica-Berbice] we are not getting this issue so there is some problem in this area and we have to look and see what is causing it. I know for a fact that there are many irresponsible cattle farmers who are loosing their cattle without care and the cattle is entering people’s fields. But at the same time, there are a lot of personality issues too in 52/74.”
He reminded the farmers that it was the rice farmers’ suggestion for the fence to be constructed around the pasture.
“Now we are hearing that cattle farmers are cutting the wire; how will we deal with that? We are hearing also sometimes that people’s animals are sometimes just in the grazing ground and when we employ stray catchers, they go because they want to impound animals and take the animals and take it to the pound.”
He said all parties need to act in a responsible way but added that he is aware that rice farmers have been suffering because of animals in their fields.
“My proposal is that you identify two rangers from the rice farmers; we will pay them. We will take two from the cattle farmers and the Ministry of Agriculture will have two,” Mustapha informed the rice farmers.

Inter-Ministry effort
Meanwhile, Local Government Minister Nigel Dharamlall said that the Ministry will be providing 12 persons as part of an inter-Ministry collaborative effort.
“Those persons will be responsible for patrolling and going around the backdam because the problem is that there are accusations that when you have these stray catchers they have been impounding people’s animals when they are not in the cultivation,” Mustapha added.
“The attorney will come out with an opinion because all of the pounds fall under the Pound Act. He told me that by Tuesday he will give an opinion and from there we will move the process,” the Agriculture Minister informed.
The Agriculture Minister pointed out that a zoning system will have to be implemented and farmers will have to comply and only have animals in areas zoned for animal rearing and rice and other crops in their respective zones.
The meeting was held at New Market Primary situated at Number 63 Village.
Meanwhile, during the meeting with animal owners which was held at Tagore Memorial Secondary, also situated at Number 63 Village, both Ministers called on the farmers to work collaboratively to address the problem.
However, the Agriculture Minister warned them to keep their animals from persons’ cultivation.
“If you allow that to happen, we will have representatives who will be neutral both from the Livestock section, the rice section, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Police and if that happens, your animals will be impounded,” Mustapha warned.
Meanwhile, Dharamlall said the Local Government Ministry will be using the part-time workers to complement those persons who will be nominated by the two groups. (G4)