Squatters invade Mon Jaloux forage farm in Cunupia

Illegal farmers have taken over almost a third of the 366-acre Mon Jaloux forage development centre in Cunupia which was once used to provide a steady supply of freshly cut Tanner grass to animal farmers.

Although the Office of the Commissioner of State Lands has taken many of the illegal occupiers to court the matters have either been thrown out for lack of prosecution or are stalled in a bureaucratic process.

The slow pace of decisive action has only encouraged more squatters to move in.

The forage farm, which was previously owned by Caroni (1975) Ltd, to provide feed for their dairy and mutton farms, was restarted by the Ministry of Agriculture in 2012.

In the nine years the farm was left abandoned many of the assets were stolen or fell into disrepair.

Last week, president of the Cattle Farmers Association Chris Medford advocated for the abandoned lands at Mon Jaloux to be once again put into production to help farmers who are buckling under the steep increases in imported feed, as much as 14 per cent this year.

He said that was one way to reviving the livestock industry from total collapse as more farmers were selling out their animals to butchers and hanging up their boots.

Minister in the Ministry of Agriculture Avinash Singh also said then that contrary to the farmers' claims the Mon Jaloux farm was providing farmers with forage on a regular basis and more people were showing an interest in livestock farming or expanding their farms.

Manager of the Mon Jaloux farm Nigel Singh says the vision of the project was to supply a readily available nutritious source of forage and legumes to animal farmers especially in the harsh dry seasons.

He once managed a team of over 25 workers and had three functioning tractors to harvest tonnes of grass. His assets have now shrunk to just one functioning tractor and a team of six workers.

Singh said on average about 50 farmers collect forage from the farm monthly which is given free of charge and believes that if the farm can charge a nominal fee the money can help to off-set some of the operational costs.

Another forage farm, La Gloria Estate, in Moruga, consisting of 6,000 acres, which was also acquired by the ministry when Caroni closed in 2003, is no longer producing grass to farmers.

"We have a serious squatting problem. The squatters occupy close to 160 acres. I occupy about 140 acres. The rest is abandoned lands," Singh said during an interview on Friday.

He recalled in 2017 the farm was at peak production but due to lack of funding over the ensuing years production fell.

Excavators once dug a 1.5 acre-wide retention pond to irrigate the grass banks in the dry season and there was equipment which compacted the grass into bales. Each acre produced at least 80 bales. And one bale could feed two cows or at least eight sheep.

But all that is left of that operation are photos. The pond is now overgrown and used by the squatting farmers to water their crops while other equipment is broken and stored in warehouses.

Singh said the idea behind the project was to create a co-operative with the animal farmers but that never got off the ground.

For the time being, he said, he will continue to keep the farm in operation and treat the only functioning tractor with kid's gloves to facilitate the farmers.