by CARLOS ATWELL

THE OFFER by Guyana to lease Barbadians their agricultural land at $10 per acre is "ridiculous" and "nonsensical".

James Paul, Democratic Labour Party candidate for St Michael West Central, made this charge on Sunday while speaking at the launch of his constituency office in Simmons Land, Fairfield, Black Rock, St Michael.

"I wish to state emphatically that if it is the desire of Government to utilise our land to satisfy the short-term objectives of big business and foreign investors, say so.

"Do not come with the ridiculous suggestion that Barbadians should feel enamoured and enthused when they are told that they can go to Guyana and get farmland at US$5 an acre," he said.

Paul said he was unaware Barbadians had "expressed a wish to be resettled" and advised Government not to use the offer as a "pretext to continue the systemic alienation of agricultural land".

"This latest nonsense is an admission on the part of Government that they have a failed land policy," he added.

The DAILY NATION called Paul yesterday in his Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS) office in Beckles Road, St Michael, for further comment.

He stressed the following comments were to be taken in the context of his position as chief executive officer of the BAS, not as a politician.

"My point is, we have a large amount of farmland in Barbados accustomed to agricultural production which is being taken out for other uses, land which lots of farmers want.

"This land in Guyana has its own peculiarities and is not as fertile [as Barbados] as most of the best agricultural land in Guyana has already been taken up. To even consider this is suggesting that 'if there is land in Guyana then why worry about land here'," he said.

In addition, Paul said it would be very difficult for any local farmer to start cultivating land in Guyana without a lot of help in terms of infrastructure.

He said corporate agriculture [which is centred around pesticides] was causing agricultural land to decrease worldwide, suggesting it was more important than ever for countries to try and hold on to what agricultural land they possessed.

"It is wrong to have a situation where land is being alienated here but to look to Guyana to put farmers under much more difficult conditions. Barbadian farmland should be accessible to Barbadian farmers," he said. (CA)