Cattle farmers decry unfair treatment by rice farmers at Cookrite Savannah

A female cattle farmer who has been in the business for more than two decades believes that she is being squeezed out of the Cookrite Savannah in the Black Bush Polder (BBP), by the increased cultivation of rice.
The Cookrite Savannah was initially earmarked for livestock cultivation but over the years, some livestock farmers converted their lands to planting rice.
Now, many of those who still rear animals, especially cattle, are tasked with preventing their animals from going into rice fields and destroying crops.
Kamildia Williams, along with her two sons have 400 heads of cows, 200 heads of sheep, 100 heads of goats, and 20 horses.
According to Williams, when she met her husband in 1981, he reared animals in the Cookrite Savannah. Prior to that, her father-in-law controlled the cattle.

However, on the heels of numerous complaints that animals are destroying rice crops, the farmers are asked to provide fencing for the rice plots to prevent their animals from entering and destroying the crops.
Williams said she recently paid $600,000 to construct a fence for a plot of land being cultivated by a rice farmer. According to the widow, this is unfair while reiterating that animals have been utilising the savannahs for decades before rice cultivation began there.
“Rice nah bin dea here. This savannah give to mine cow and now rice take over. Every time cow see greenness they got to go into the rice field; you can’t stop the cow from doing that,” she argued in her native Corentyne dialect.
She added that on one occasion most of her cattle were impounded after entering a rice field but after negotiations and the intervention of the Government, she was able to get them released after paying $200,000.

The woman related that it would cost her about $6 million to fence the land in order to prevent her animals from entering rice fields. She is of the belief that the authorities seem to be paying little attention to cattle farmers.
With the pressure, she related that at some point, they will be forced to sell the animals. Williams’ son, Elvis Shivgobin, stated that after his father died, he started to assist on the farm.
“Now the rice farmers dem taking over. When they plant rice, we have to fence it. We don’t have anywhere to graze the cattle,” he pointed out.
His other brother, Schain Shivgobin, noted that it is about four different farmers who are cultivating rice in close proximity to where they have cattle in the Cookrite Savannah.
He added that is frequently being asked by the rice farmer when they would be fencing the new plot of land that he is currently ploughing.
“He tell me that we have to prevent our cows from going into his rice.”
Region Six Chairman David Armogan noted that planting rice and rearing animals in the same area has been creating problems.
“I am told that the leases that were given to the farmers were called agriculture leases and although it was earmarked for cattle, because of the fact that it was called agricultural leases people have been doing any kind of agriculture on those lands so it is difficult to deal with the situation.”