Dear Editor,
GUYANA has no shortage of narrators. Every day and night, citizens are bombarded with noise from every direction, each voice carrying a different agenda, each claiming to have the solution. Yet many appear to share the same objective: to remove the government.
In all this noise, one important question has been lost.
The discussion surrounding President Irfaan Ali’s farm should not begin with speculation. It should begin with a simple question: How did he build it?
What level of thinking and planning went into acquiring the land? What effort was required to execute and operate the farm?
How was such an enterprise developed over the last five years, while simultaneously carrying the responsibility of leading a country? What systems, discipline, partnerships, and management practices made it successful?
Those are questions worth answering because they teach us something.
The President has already addressed how he acquired the farm and has since moved on with the business of running the country.
Whether every number discussed publicly is exact or not, the figures represent what appear to be a successful agricultural business strategy and measurable profit growth. That alone deserves attention.
Unfortunately, much of the public conversation has been focused everywhere except on the lessons.
Many of those who spend their days narrating the President’s achievements have not themselves made significant contributions to Guyana’s economy, society, or culture. Many social media commentators spend more time in other people’s businesses than building their own.
Who would emulate them?
That is a question every citizen should ask.
Guyana is developing a culture of circular talk, conversations that begin with opinions and end with opinions, rarely supported by evidence. We have people on the political left and right influencing society with outrage, mediocrity, and pain. They have become experts at commentary, but commentary alone has never built an economy.
The more important question is this: What can I build?
President Ali’s farm should not simply become another political talking point, it should become motivation.
Agriculture is critical infrastructure. Every developed nation understands this. Farming is not simply about crops. It is about food security, exports, employment, resilience, and wealth creation.
Smart farmers may already be thinking differently. If a nationally recognised agricultural enterprise is developing in one location, then the surrounding lands become more valuable. Proximity creates opportunity. Roads improve. Suppliers emerge. Buyers pay attention. Infrastructure follows investment.
Rather than allowing this moment to become another political argument, why not create new opportunities? Open surrounding agricultural lands through transparent public programmes or auctions. Encourage established farmers to expand and new farmers to enter the sector. Transform one successful farm into an agricultural corridor that creates hundreds of successful farms.
That is how economic ecosystems are built.
Looking at this revelation as a political problem produces very little. Looking at it as an economic opportunity creates ripple effects throughout the country. It renews interest in farming. It strengthens food security. It increases exports. It generates personal income. It creates businesses that employ people instead of social media debates that entertain people.
Time and farming land have always been available to us.
We just never did it.
Perhaps that is the real lesson hidden within this entire conversation.
Every controversy presents a choice. We can become professional commentators, or professional builders. We can spend our lives measuring someone else’s success, or we can spend our time creating our own.
Guyana’s future will not be determined by those who speak the loudest. It will be determined by those who plant, build, innovate, invest, and create opportunities for others.
If President Ali’s farm inspires even one new generation of entrepreneurs, farmers, investors, and young professionals to think differently about agriculture, then the country’s greatest harvest may not be measured in acres or profits, it may be measured in mindset.
Sometimes the greatest opportunity is not found in the controversy itself; it is found in the lesson that most people were too busy arguing to see.