The Mahaica-Mahaicony-Abary Project : socioeconomic change in Guyana

The Mahaica-Mahaicony-Abary Project in Guyana is about rice, in particular, and development, in general. It is situated along the coastland within Demerara and Berbice, whose alluvial-clay base is fertile and suited to wet rice cultivation, but "very unstable and extremely complex" because salinity, flooding, soil erosion, siltation and drift compound drainage problems in the project area.

Thus, with physical infrastructure—water control, drainage, irrigation, and road systems; agricultural development, especially in rice culture; land use and settlement—the project seeks to control salinity in the Mahaica, Mahaicony, and Abary Rivers, prevent flooding of the rice growing area, expand acreage, and increase production and productivity in the rice industry.

These physical works—main and secondary—have been funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Government of Guyana at US$72.6mn (G$200mn), and US$53.6mn (G$160mn), respectively. The project falls within strategies for feeding, housing, and clothing the nation; import substitution; diversification of the industrial base; export promotion; and decentralization, devolution and regional development. In the latter case it seeks to increase farmers' income to a target of G$9,000 per year, by 1989. This is a study in Political Economy. It focuses on project behavior and/or misbehavior, tensions in project evolution, and on institutions and their relationships and impacts on development. It draws on the plantation, subsistence, and small holding traditions in Guyanese society.

The study incorporated fieldwork including interviews with farmers in the project area and with officials and staff of the principal institutions connected with the project, and on-site visits to tiie physical works and the Mahaicony-Abary Rice Development Scheme (MARDS); review of secondary information; and discussions with colleagues, professionals and local residents within and outside the project area.

The project's flood control objective has already been achieved. The target income objective is clearly in sight. This, however, is tied to increased production, drainage and irrigation works scheduled for completion in 1987, and the consolidation of the agricultural development program projected for 1989. The employment and settlement objectives, on the other hand, are questionable.