The thieving of farmers’ produce

by Oscar Allen 17.MAY.11

“Times tough” the young man said to his friend, “an dem man go thief dust an all, if deh could put deh hand on it.” The two men were discussing the epidemic of thieving that is becoming endemic in farming districts today. They recounted case after case of praedial larceny. “One pardna air cut not one bunch of he banana from his banana field since deh begin to shoot. Dem man done walk wid 45 bunch a banana from his cultivation.”{{more}} His friend then told his side of the story. “You see in my area, my own is de only banana field nearby, an when people can’ buy deh rice and macaroni, is my banana deh stripping to put in deh pot. And just last week, I had to pull my dasheen before deh ripe. Somebody done gone in de field and pull 8 sack a de dasheen an deh woulda bear real good if deh been ripe. It only tek 15 holes to full a sack”. The discussion touched on many other strategic matters in the experience of the man, and yet they gave no impression that they were losing hope in their profession. They were committed farmers. As I listened actively to the conversation, I could hear echoing around us the murmur of 1000 other farmers saying “Amen, ah right so it go”. The thieving epidemic is serious and deadly.

Now, it might be useful for somebody to examine what farmers are saying about the cause and effect of the spread of larceny of farm produce. The 2 men seemed to accept that hard times and poverty were the reasons why those who apparently had little investment in farm cultivation were cutting into the earnings of those who put their land, labour and money into the farm; that equation has as its possible corollary, making the poverty circle get wider, impoverishing the farm, cutting back how much a farmer can plough back into the cultivation and even slowing down the recovery of banana industry output. The thieving is so bad for business and family livelihood.

But what I would like to propose is that we revisit and evaluate the project that set out, some 3 years ago, to curtail the thieving of farm produce. For the project we had village consultations, the passing in parliament of a new praedial larceny law/act, the creation of rural constables, the registering of farmers, the handling out of farm gate receipt books, etc. If what the farmers above are saying is true, that “dem man thieving more than ever”, then we must review that project to improve it or redesign it, or expose it. Of course, we must ask ourselves if the farmers are correct to suggest that it is poverty/tough times that make people thief. If it is so, then our project must aim not to end thieving, but to crush rural poverty or at least to undermine it and abort its reproduction.

If we really decide to take a good look at the scheme that we launched to tackle praedial larceny, we must begin by asking questions about the implementation. So we designed and laid out the project, but who is running it? Who is checking to see how many farmgate receipt books are filled out and new ones requested? Who is counting the number of larceny reports? Who is looking at how busy or effective the rural constables are? How many cases have they brought? How many farm items have been recovered? How confident are farmers as they use the services of this project? Do we “police” these persons who buy farm goods to see their receipts? Is anybody really administering and monitoring this project and producing annual reports about its results, its effectiveness and its weaknesses? Is somebody just play playing and fool fooling and monkeying around with the livelihood of working people? Will the responsible agency stand up and come forward and answer?

Let an independent agency do a review/evaluation of this project to tackle praedial larceny and make recommendations, and point to the vulnerable elements and culpable parties. An agency like Projects Promotion or the FAO might fit the bill, and the report must be shared with farmers, first of all.

Today is not yesterday. Today is more serious. Today is the mother for tomorrow.