Youths are also Affected by Land Dispute in Toledo

Jordy Usher

These villages are primarily used for agricultural production. Rice farming, cattle ranching and even honey production are the livelihoods of these villages. But what about the youths, and how are they affected? Today, we spoke with several students who are pursuing degrees in agriculture with the hope of toiling farms in their communities. They share their take on the discourse.

Jordy Usher, Student, University of Belize

“Most of us in Yemeri Grove are actually students at UBCF, so that’s Central Farm, it’s an agricultural school and most of us have dreams to pursue agriculture as our future workplace. And with this whole MLA situation, we had to take time out from our class to be here and this was, to me personally, a very successful presentation, press conference. It really shines the light of what’s going on in Toledo on a whole. Most of us, we want our own land in our own community and with this whole MLA situation, in the next couple of years, where will we get land from. So that’s the biggest thing on my mind here. Some of us might want to deal with cattle one day, some of us might want to go into apiary one day and we need our land. So this is very concerning for the people of our age.”

Herald Usher

Herald Usher, Student, University of Belize

“Right now we can all see that the land for farming is getting short and with this new generation and how things are going, you won’t even be able to get a house lot. And all of us here, we are basically finished with our degree; we want to pursue agriculture. I want to get into livestock and obviously the land won’t be there if this dispute continues and we have other guys in our village that like agriculture and they won’t be able to pursue their dreams.”

Gerald Young

Gerald Young, Student, University of Belize

“I feel like fi youths, people noh listen to youths. If I say that I want people feel the way I feel or hear how I feel that youths noh recognise. I proud of my chairman to invite me on this trip today because I like the world, all the different people dehn weh di listen wah know that from the youths di suffer.”