The 228 agricultural producers from Tamayo and surrounding communities who have taken refuge in a camp for eleven months to claim their right to the land, will be settled next Sunday in 7,500 tasks by President Luis Abinader.
The delivery of the titles will be held next Sunday at 3:00 in the afternoon at the Neiba sports center, informed the agronomist Manuel Pérez, spokesman for the peasants.
Pérez said that after 25 meetings with the team of officials from the Government’s Agricultural Cabinet, in the end an agreement was signed on Thursday afternoon mediated by the Ombudsman, Pablo Ulloa.
“The actions of today’s meeting are contained in the agreement signed between the producers and the Agricultural Cabinet five months ago. Today we define actions regarding the 13 points contained in that macro agreement”, said the spokesperson for the producers.
In addition to Pérez, representing the agricultural harvesters were Guillermo Mateo, Enrique González, Yanyi González and Pedro Pascual García Méndez (Pempe).
According to the spokesperson, the agricultural producers feel very satisfied because, at last, they will return to cultivating plantains, bananas, corn, cassava and other crops.
Montunos and without irrigation systems
The mountainous lands, a plateau in the Sierra de Neiba fault, between the urban area of Tamayo and the community of Guanarate, lack irrigation systems.
However, agricultural producers hope that this will be a transitory problem, since in the surrounding area the sugarcane plantations of the Barahona Sugar Mill, managed by the Central Sugar Consortium (CAC), are irrigated by dripping, Pérez declared.
The spokesman for the peasants expressed hope that the authorities will dispense the mechanisms, resources and seeds so that in a short time they can develop their crops “and we can produce food for our families and the market.”
immediate actions
Pérez said that the agreement established the beginning of an immediate action to define the way to provide water for the irrigation of the properties.
For such purposes, the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources (Indrhi) and the Commission for the Promotion of the Modernization of the National Irrigation System, directed by Olmedo Caba and Claudio Caamaño Vélez, committed themselves.
Similarly, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Executing Technical Unit for Agroforestry Development Projects (UTEPDA), a dependency of the Presidency, would carry out clearing of the land so that it can be cultivated. For such purposes, they would send bulldozers, grenades, tractors and other heavy equipment to the area, according to Pérez.
