Praedial larceny is nothing new to the agriculture sector but for farmers of Wesley the problem has become a nightmare in recent times.
These farmers are reporting that their crops are being stolen by thieves for several months now and it is having a significant impact on production and livelihood.
And to make matters worse the farmers believe that the authorities are working at snail pace to bring address to their problem.
DNO understands some 15 to 20 farmers are presently being plagued by a sudden increase in the theft of their produce.
Sixty-six year old Hawkins Maxwell is one of the victims.
“On five different occasions they stole my plantains,” he told DNO on Thursday. “It is sad…we are really suffering and it hurts to see we are planting crops and they are being stolen.”
According to him the malicious act began three to five months ago and continues unabated.
“During the five occasions they stole over 20 bunches of plantains from my garden and I made a loss of $1,800 because of that,” Maxwell lamented. “Things are hard and I have my bills to pay. We are going through a struggle up there and seeing so much of my crops being stolen I am losing money weekly.”
Maxwell, who has been a farmer since 21, said farming has always been his livelihood.
“As a farmer I sent my nine children to school by selling crops and that is how we survived, that is what helped me to build my house, take a loan…” he noted.
He stated the thieves have been going from farm to farm, stealing everything including bananas and tannia and farmers are now formulating a plan to capture the culprits.
“I believe the farmers are saying enough is enough…,” he said. “We are seeing how we can form a group and every weekend, two or three people will go out to see if we can catch the thieves.”
However, there are problems since most farms are located miles away from the farmers’ homes.
“Some of our plantations are a mile to a mile and a half away, some almost three miles away from our homes,” he stated. “So when we go to our farms in the morning and come back home, we cannot go back on the farm for the day. That is when the thieves steal from the farms.”
My two cents :- Dig a pit beneath the best looking bunch in the garden and set a wild pig trap in it . Then cover the hole with small sticks and dry banana leaves …..voialla!! You`ll catch that pig for christmas !
So very sad to hear this! Unfortunately, this is just the start! People have no jobs, there is no welfare! There is no industry here! There is nothing here!! So the thieving is going to get so much worse. Dominica has been totally run down. How very, very sad! No Creole festival, nothing. What do people expect. They have to go to the red clinic right!! However the PM is in America having a baby!! Everyone needs to eat right!! What a very sad situation. How can Dominica be so very poor now!! Who is responsible for the downfall of Dominica??????????????????????????????????????
What the police should do is ask all vendors and hucksters for an offcial certification of purchase with the names and address, conacts of the farmers with the amount and weight of each items purchase.
The people of Wesley just need to team up and hide in the bush and wait for the thieves and tie them up after they give them some blows with a stick. Then call the police to do the rest. This must stop. One set working hard whilst the others just reaping? That’s not fair. The hucksters who are buying load from persons with no garden please stop it. God is watching you.
I don’t know how easy it would be to purchase one in Dominica, but for $100 – $150 USD in the USA, you can buy an infrared trail camera. I know it’s not cheap, but it’s one option that might help catch the thieves.
You had better be out in lookouts in the trees to be ready when the thieves come.
This is a good idea. I did not think of it.
It is a hidden camera. What a way to catch thieves in the act and quickly. The farmers should consider purchasing one which probably could be placed at the entrance of the farm, also placed near at least one plantain tree or in an area when they are leaving the farm with the produce. It would catch them in the act.
A silent alarm system could do to alert the farmers at a distance. Does Dominica have such a type of alarm system? Simply wondering and asking.
Mr. Hawkins,
Growing up I always heard ‘si e pas ni soutiweh, e pas ni voleur’. The bigger problem here are the people who buy from these thieves. From time immemorial, we have black market deals and people still believe in buying cheap to make more profit. Most of these vendors know when voleur and paro come to sell to them. They should refuse to buy from them! So you have a big battle on your hands. I don’t advocate vigilante justice, but as a person raised and educated on farming, I am very particular to the plight of a framer. For you to get out of your bed since three in the morning, work hard all day till evening and then a lazy just pass behind you and enjoy your hard work? Do what you have to do sir. Just be careful.
shame on who is doing that
They don’t care. thieves have no conscience.
This is just a shame how some people can prey on others, especially for some of us who work hard to make a living. It may be that the gardens are far from the homes but sometimes one has to make sacrifices. In this case, maybe leaving the garden could be at an earlier time so that you can return in the evening to catch the thieves.
It has gotten to a point that some of us have lost all respect for ourselves and as a result we treat each other the same way. Some of us have debased ourselves to the degree that we don’t even think of our actions and the pain that they cause others. Some people have become so desperate that they do not consider the consequences of their actions.
WHAT A SHAME
There are some people who selfishly think only of themselves and not of others. What a shame these thieves would do this to the farmers.
It is my feeling that they steal the produce to sell. They watch when the farmers leave the property and then they steal the produce. They could also be stealing in the evenings. If so, they would have to use some sort of lighting.
They may be people the farmers know and vice versa. If they have workers, I hope they are not the ones stealing.
I hope the police is informed. If it is possible, the police should patrol the area at intervals.
Alert other people of Wesley, Marigot and surrounding areas about it informing them, they should not purchase produce from those who are not farmers. It should be broadcasted through, especially Radio and TV.
The thieves should be caught soon. The farmers should set a trap for them that when they go on the farm, they fall into it. This is one way of catching them on the spot.
The police don’t care.
More work for the farmer. If the police would do stings, then some of the thieves could get caught. But the police are fast asleep.
Some times the farmer could set a trap and forgot it himself and fall in it, Its a shame to know that the farmers could work and not enjoy their labour
I thought the same and to inform them to be careful. Someone may have a better idea how to catch them. If it is possible, police patrol may do it.
The people of the village needs to come together. If you see something, say something. The hauxters need to find out if the people from whom they are buying produce from planted them. The village is too small for that kind of thing to go un-notice. We should go back to the people helping people days. Maybe even start setting plia that are big enough to catch man. Set traps in your garden. It can surely work.
Hawkins, the answer to that is simple; form a watch grope, arm yourselves with guns, and shoot down the culprits in the act!
That would involve some kind of living on the farm. Or are you proposing they don laboo and dry leaves and hang in the dirt trenches?
Even if they lived on the farm, these thieves could come in and steal some crops.
…and when they shoot them thieves everybody says the farmers are wicked for killing a man for a bunch of fig?
Somebody is purchasing these stolen goods, maybe it’s about time some hucksters and venders start producing receipts upon requests by the authorites for produce in their possession… there must be a trail to follow.
Mr Educated, or the lack thereof; group is spelt G R O U P not grope…SMFH.
The police needs to catch the thief and the hucksters buying from the thieves. Their is one prominent huckster from Wesley who is now afraid to go to Antigua…LOL…ask him why
Fire, “their is one…” what about “there is one….” Equal ok?
Fire, u want to educate Mr. Educated but u went on and spell “their” for “there” The English language is the most, very difficult language to learn, there are too many words which pronounces the same way but spells differently. I don’t blame u
Fire! I noticed that u corrected Mr. Educated with his spelling, but there goes u spelt “their” as “there” I know its not ur fault, the English language is the very most difficult language to learn, there are too many words which pronounces the same but spells differently.
“Their is one prominent huckster from Wesley who is now afraid to go to Antigua”
If that is in response to a mistake I made by simple writing grope, instead group, you believe I should be in Los Angeles, and know someone from Wesley who is afraid to go to Antigua, you are crazy! If you are so smart why not state the name of the person, disclose the reason.
I lived in Antigua too you know, and all the years I liveed there I only know three people from Wesley who ever sold agricultural products out side of the St. Johns Market: One of them is my brother by father his name is Gibson; and if you are thinking in terms of Christmas, it is not him.
And if you have in mind Gibson from Eden road, had a store in Antigua now living in the U. S also my brother by father it not him!
There was another lady, I do not recall her name, and that Guy Cerance St. Aimie, and surly I never known them to be thieves!
“there are problems since most farms are located miles away from the farmers’ homes”.
I am not a farmer, so please forgive me if I am incorrect. However, as a bank employee, I provided loans to farm communities in British Columbia, Canada, where farming is a business. My observation is that Farmers live on their land, and not 1 to 3 miles away, in the village. Living on their farm allows them to integrate animal husbandry into their farm practice. Living on their land provides security for their crops and other farming assets. Living on their land reduces time wasted in travel, and makes more efficient the storage of crops on the way to market. Living on the land allows for more time spent farming.
Praedial larceny is a terrible blight in our land. Farmers need to revisit living off site in locations miles away from their farms. This would be only one step in the terribly inefficient farming methods prevalent in Dominica
One Love.
That sort of thing does not happen in Dominica. First of all the space used for farming in the countries you mentioned is a far cry from the cultivation in Wesley.
Farm house in the countries question in most case might be a regular house, how many farmers in Dominica would be will to live an even more primitive lifestyle than they are already suffering!
My brother, I understand your point but what do you mean by “primitive?’ Being in the country where you have, especially , the fresh air that we all need to survive, is not primitive but is how nature intended for us to live. That fresh air is pure and is good for the circulatory system especially if one suffers with pulmonary problems.
Sometimes we think that “development” is the best but it is not always the case. There is good and bad in everything and we mus be wiser in our thinking.
Well, being primitive is simply a matter of living a lifestyle similar to the primitive days of our forefathers who were hunters and gathers. In any event in the term I used it simply means relating to the earliest age, or period. considered primitivity!
What happened in the early age, we had no flush toilets, we had no telephones, we had no electricity! Someone subjecting themselves to live on a Farm, will definitely have to live under those former conditions!
Unless there is electricity, telephone, and all the latest technology exists in the mountain where most of our farm land is located. As far as I know there electricity at Button which is nearest to the village.
I have a cousin name Dorival Dods (Dodds). the last time I went pass his house in the interior, though there is a paved road going passed his house, I did not see power lines running to his house. Although I saw a pick-up truck parked next to the house. Anytime you are not equip with modern facilities,…
i guess you that volney person know absolutely nothign about forming practices in the caribbean best you shut up and stay in canada before u make a fool of yourself online
Such insults are not necessary!
I doubt there is any Dominican born who does not know anything about Farming. He did not say anything wrong. Only that he has a broad idea of the lifestyle of the farmers in the country he mentioned!
We farm on hills, and over precipices, while in those countries they utilize flat land!
If this could be a deterrent for those heartless thieves which is what they are, the farmers could build a small country house and live their during the week, from Monday to Friday. Then spend the weekend at their other house. Of course, thieves are always on the look-out and as spies will know when the farmers are present or absent. At least they may think twice to steal during the week.
Facts, Dominica is not the same as when people our age grew up there. In Wesley these days you can loose your life in broad daylight! Always remember, anyone who goes out to steal most likelare capable of killing okay!y
If someone decides to live on their farm (plantation) in the bush in Marigot, Woodford Hill, and Wesley to detour thievery of their property, they had better be in position to be protected by some serious fire power! They had better know how to use some semi-automatic firearm.
Waving a cutlass, and shouting thief, thief, or “pal what you doing here” will not stop the thief. Shooting the thief dead may not be necessary, but at least put him down with a bullet, and get the police, burst the thief patellar’s cripple the crook, even if one need to help to get them some medical attention in the process!
This is a load of nonsense.Farmers in Canada live many miles from there fields and crops.
DA isn’t Canada, although there are thieves there too. They just aren’t that interested in selling crops.
I guess you are referring to farm houses as in the united states and Europe,dominicas farming community is not structured that way,a lot of these farmers plant on hillsides as you said outside the villages,so it’s a different way of farming life,my two pence on these happenings is,they steal from each other,who ever doing these praedial larceny,knows where to go and when