Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton says President Irfaan Ali must ensure Guyanese have first preference in accessing farmlands before making same available to foreigners. His remark came on the heels of the president’s recent announcement that the youth of Barbados will have access to farmlands in Guyana through an agricultural project between the two nations.
Norton said that while he has no problem with regional integration, “It cannot be at the expense of our [Guyanese] people”. He then accused the Guyana Government of evicting its own people off of lands in Linden, Region 10.
“You cannot tell me that you just push Lindeners off of land in the Wisroc area; you just pushed Lindeners off of land in Amelia’s Ward, you are depriving people of land. A farmer in Bush Lot, a young person who wanted to farm, said to me that he would like to have land. Now, you’re not giving your people the land, but you gone outside of Guyana with projects to give way our land?
“This must not be seen as anti-integration. I am pro-integration, but I’m not stupid, and it’s absolute stupidity for us to have a high unemployment rate and we’re not using the lands etcetera, to put our people in agriculture,” Norton declared at a press conference hosted this morning.
During an Agriculture event in Barbados several days ago, President Ali pointed to the areas of cooperation between Guyana and Barbados, including agriculture, and noted that the Black Belly Sheep Initiative launched in late March will now be expanded.
He was quoted as saying, “We are setting aside 50 acres of land to be owned by young people as part of the Black Belly Sheep project in Guyana, 50 acres to be owned by persons with disability, 50 acres to be owned by single parents, women and importantly, 50 acres that will be owned by your young people here in Barbados.”
Crocodiles do not want farmland: they want to live in housing schemes and have the government create jobs for them.