Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
cultivation of the land by the owner, while irrigation and spraying for the
diseasewillbecarriedoutbytheFruitCompany.Thelatterwilllayallpipe
lines, install all other necessary equipment for irrigation, as well as spray-
ing, and will actually carry out these operations, all equipment remain-
ing their property under the contract.''
44
As described by Oury-Jackson,
the proposal hardly represented a return to pre-Sigatoka conditions. The
decision to offer the contract only to planters with ''good lands'' presum-
ably excluded a large number of cultivators. For those who signed onto
the plan, the payment received for their fruit—25 cents per bunch less an
additional 5 cents per bunch to cover loan payments—represented a steep
drop from the 45 cents previously paid for a nine-hand bunch (and was
significantly lower than prices paid during the Depression).
45
Finally, the
company's ownership and operation of the Sigatoka control and irriga-
tion equipment threatened to render non-company growers independent
in name only.
Presentedwithfewoptions,severalSulavalleyfarmersacceptedsome
version of agreement described above. Installation of Sigatoka control
equipment on non-company farms began in 1939.That year, the company
purchasedamere122,000bunches;
46
threeyearslater,companypurchases
exceeded one million bunches, and non-company farms covered 1,900
hectares in the Sula valley.
47
However, a U.S. consular ocial noted the
changed conditions of production:
During these years the domestic growers became increasingly
dependent upon the American companies, both for market outlet and
for the increasingly special supplies needed, to such a degree that at
present the Tela Railroad Company installs all irrigation and spray
systems in the independent farms and supervises their labor and
production methods, etc. Nowadays the so-called ''independent''
grower, in effect, simply collects the rent for his land at the rate of 25
cents per stem of bananas produced thereon.
48
The Tela Railroad Company's Sigatoka assistance program primarily
served to ensure that the company would continue to have access to the
region's best banana soils without actually owning or leasing additional
lands. By controlling access to markets, key production processes, and
financing, the company dominated banana farming in the Sula valley to
an unprecedented degree. Increasingly, small- and large-scale cultivators
whose soils did not produce the yields needed to turn a profit in the Siga-
toka era shifted to other crops and ranching.
