“…you feel like you’re back on your feet again”

WHEN THE UNEXPECTED HEAVY SHOWERS COUNTRYWIDE PERSISTED THIS
YEAR it floored farmers.
Groggy from the pummeling, they each wobbled, desperately trying to beat the referees’ count of
10.
One by one they slumped heavily to the floor. And stayed there!
The person to switch on the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, promptly seemed to forgot
his/her job.
One depressed farmer lost faith before the government announced its sweeping multi-billion-
dollar rescue package.
On Monday, Public Works Minister Bishop Juan Anthony Edghill continued the administration’s
salvific cash distribution programme to flood-hit residents, this time in Malali and Muritaro two
Amerindian communities in Upper Demerara-Berbice (Region Ten) where the ruling party lost
heavily in the 2020 polls.
“Well, you know, it’s like I didn’t expect…so much money. But right now, we feel more
relieved” farmer Chris Carter admitted.
He recalled watching helplessly as the punishing flood waters deluged his crops.
“We stand up and watched the plants. It was a kind of heartbreaking,” Carter remembered.
“…but at least with the option the government give us, we can get lil fertilizer. Even if you have
to pay an extra dollar for labour … with this $100,000 you feel like you’re back on your feet
again,” Carter noted.

“I am very happy for the support. When the floods came, I had a lot of losses. I am going to start
as soon as possible (to) buy a lot of seeds and start afresh. Thank God, to God be the glory,” Ms.
Anjanie Spencer, one of the beneficiaries of the relief said.
Spencer pointed out that the dry season has begun thus giving her an opportunity to return to
farming.

Stella Fleming, another farmer from Malali, echoed similar sentiments.
“I would like to say thanks to the Government for doing this, for giving me this grant to do back
this farming. I am so happy for him [President, Irfaan Ali], for the Government, so that I could
do something with this money,” an overjoyed Fleming said.
She continued, “I could go down in Linden, they have the bora plants there selling, I could buy
the bora plants. They got the sweet cassava sticks to sell. I could buy that and eddo plants I could
buy and plant again.”
Meanwhile, the residents of Muritaro were equally overjoyed with the windfall from the
government. Alice Fleming, an 85-year-old farmer, was in high praises for the Irfaan Ali
administration, commending them for the $100,000 she received that could help expand her
farmland.
“I have no son, he died, my husband died, five years ago. So, I am farming with my daughter on
my own to make ends meet. You see, as a farmer you have to sustain yourself. So that’s what
I’m trying to do. So, the (flood)water destroyed everything…but there is God, he is God, He
knows everything. So, I’m thankful now that I can expand, I can pay a labourer to expand…So,
I’m very happy and thankful for this money it will help us to acquire a better living,” Fleming
explained.
Minister Edghill counselled recipients to view the cash grant as a means to help them return to
crop and livestock farming and not as compensation.

“This is our way of saying to you and all the men and women who get out there and plant, reap,
transport down to Linden for sale. We understand the waters wiped you out, but all is not lost.
We are giving you a chance to bounce back. This is seed money and as farmers you know when
you plant the seed you get a whole harvest,” he told appreciative residents.
“Invest it. Get back to your crops, get back to your work. This is also saying to you, that the
government that you support, that promised you that they will take care of you, is a government
that is fulfilling its word,” minister Edghill reminded.
The cash grant distribution forms part of a $7B (US$35M) fund set aside by the Government to
help farmers decimated by the unprecedented 2021 flooding, Edghill explained.
When the judges tallied their scores, the referee raised the farmers hands.