Letter of the Day | Small farmers having a rough time

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Approximately one year ago, my two siblings and I decided to venture into food crop farming on two acres of land in the Wigton area of south Manchester. One of my siblings was registered with Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) but never approached them for any advice or assistance over the years, as he had not decided whether he would be going into farming.

We decided to check the status of his registration and surprisingly his name was still there. I was happy to know as RADA has been promoting how much they provide help to small farmers in providing tractors to assist with the plowing of the land and assistance with fertilisers and other needed help for farmers.

So, being excited about that, we went down to the RADA office in Mandeville to check out the availability of a tractor and to make an appointment for its use. To my disappointment, I was told that there is only one tractor available to farmers in Manchester and it was out of service. There was no timeline given for its repair and availability.

We were also told that even if it were available, we would be on a very long waiting list to access the service. Further, we would have to pay approximately $25,000 for the services. I thought that being a registered farmer with RADA, we could get these benefits for free, or at least at a significantly reduced price. We ended up paying a private tractor operator to do the job for $35,000 after a lot of negotiations.

My next disappointment was that the impression was being given by the authorities that registered farmers could get fertilisers from RADA free of cost, but this has turned out to be a fallacy. When we went to enquire about getting fertilisers for our crops, we were told that only eight bags of fertiliser were given to them to be distributed to farmers in the area. There are a larger number of registered small farmers in that area, so how on earth could eight bags of fertiliser be adequate for distribution?

This is the contempt the authorities have for our small farmers. There is no real help for our farmers who toil so hard to provide food. This is why ground provisions are so expensive and out of the reach of ordinary people. It just goes to show that the authorities are not serious about helping farmers; it is just all lip service.

AUBYN PERKINS

Mandeville, Manchester