Farmers’ fight

by CARLOS ATWELL

carlosatwell@nationnews.com

SOME MEMBERS of the farming community across Barbados are furious that a farmer seemingly had to resort to lethal force to protect his livelihood.

Barbados Agricultural Society chief executive officer James Paul; Barbados Association of Retailers, Vendors and Entrepreneurs (BARVEN) president Alister Alexander and Barnwell Farms Ltd operations manager Gay Reed said the issues with praedial larceny have been going on for far too long and farmers’ backs were to the wall.

Police reported that two men were shot dead about 12:20 a.m. yesterday while in a yam field at Three Houses Plantation, St Philip.

The police also noted in its report that the owner of the field, which was under lease from the plantation, was patrolling after having experienced previous incidents of theft from the same yam field when he came across the two men harvesting his crops and confronted them.

It further noted that an altercation occurred resulting in the two men being shot. They both died at the scene. The identities of the two men who were shot, were not disclosed up to press time.

Speaking after the incident occurred, Paul said the burden of blame for praedial larceny had to be shouldered by everyone.

“Imagine you are going to work every week or month and at the end, you are not paid because somebody has taken your wage. We have a situation where the public must bear some of the responsibility because when we continue to buy produce from persons we cannot satisfy for ourselves are legitimate owners of that produce, that is also a problem,” he said.

Paul said loss of life in such circumstances was always regrettable but noted the situation was reaching a boiling point.

“I do not feel any glee about this situation but praedial larceny is a scourge on our ecosystem and we need to get rid of it. I know there will be some people who will say ‘Oh dear’ but look at what has happened in our society which has contributed to the situation where farmers may have to unfortunately resort to this kind of thing. We have to be careful not to push people to the point of desperation,” he said.

The BAS chief executive officer said yams were a six-month crop, explaining that no farmer was prepared to lose that type of produce without a fight.

“I do not support any loss of life but at this point, what can you expect? Hindsight is 20/20. If you were in that situation, what would you do? Let us try to avoid these things from happening by engaging in practices and putting into place regulations in our society which would discourage or prevent persons who would want to engage in those activities from doing so,” he said.

Alexander also said he regretted the loss of life but was not sure what could be done to prevent praedial larceny.

“The police can’t solve this problem, they cannot patrol all the farms in Barbados. I blame the criminals for this, both those who are stealing and those who are receiving. I hope we can get together and make use of modern technology to come to some sort of solution. But let me be clear, I support any farmer who chooses to protect their lives and livelihoods,” he said.

Frustration

Alexander said BARVEN represented not only vendors but farmers as well and knew intimately about the frustration surrounding crop theft.

“Imagine persons who have used all their capital to invest in a crop only to have it stolen. Farmers have to battle pests – insects and monkeys – as well as climate and more, only to lose it all to thieves anyway, to those who come in the dead of night to reap what they have not sown. BARVEN has absolutely nothing to do with crop theft, we have a zero-tolerance policy about it and you can be certain we will be keeping an eye on any suspicious activity at our market and report it to the police,” he said.

Reed expressed sympathy over the deaths but said farmers were at the point where they felt they had to take matters into their own hands.

“It’s very sad it’s come to this but I agree that if anybody comes onto your property stealing, you have the right to do what you have to do,” he said.

Reed said there was a need for stiffer penalties for crop thieves, adding that police could do more.

“I would like the police to make regular visits to the farmer’s lands because it is very unfortunate to have all this money invested in crops and you cannot harvest anything because other people have harvested it for you.

“I think we in the industry should have the right to call on the police service to visit our farms at any time to prevent trouble from happening. That should be a regular occurrence. No one should be able to steal your produce when there are authorities out there able to do something about it. I would like the police to be more vigilant,” he said.

The police are appealing to the public to help them identify the two deceased individuals. Individuals are asked to contact District C Police Station at 418-8200/04, police emergency 211 or Oistins police station at 418-2612.