http://www.jamaicagleaner.com/gleaner/20080425/lead/lead4.html

Gee, can this man call me? I love broccoli and cauliflower but don't buy it because it is too expensive.

I never knew that Jamaica imported fruits and vegetables. With such great produce in Jamaica I am surprised.

I wouldn't have thought it, either, until I watched _Life and Debt_. Jamaica has been placed in the position of importing a lot of things that could be readily available from local producers. It's pretty awful.

we buy our vegetables local,organic greens and reds,cauliflower,string beans,carrots and much more.The imported veggies spoil very easy,they have a different taste-but the most important thing is to support the local family-farmers!!!The Hotels Industry has only one problem-sometimes you can get it-sometimes not-the farmers have to go with our season-we do not need tons of tomatoes and other veggies in the summer!Sometimes you do not get one watermelon-and next day you see thousands.Actually bad for the farmers-the price goes down.There is so many vacant farmland arround-it.s really awful that we must import!!!

Drought, high fertiliser prices frustrating St Elizabeth farmers

BY TYRONE S REID Sunday Observer staff reporter reidt@jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, April 27, 2008



For ages, St Elizabeth has been considered the bread basket of Jamaica, renowned for its lush and arable agricultural lands. But in recent times, farmers across the parish have been finding it extremely difficult to increase their output due to numerous constraints, chief among them increases in the prices of fertilisers, pesticides and fungicides, which are essential for the survival of their crops.


Farmer Rupert Roache cleans newly-harvested escallion from his farm.
In farming districts such as Nain, several farmers, including Al Powell and Steve Eunice, who toil daily under the merciless sun, say they are considering calling it quits as they are no longer able to adequately provide for themselves, their women and their children. Additionally, the dry season they are currently experiencing makes it all the more difficult to produce the best crops.

"Is a rough season right yah now. Every weh yuh tun is a next problem. You have the heat at day and the frost at night and that not good for the crops," Powell told the Sunday Observer.

"The fertiliser too expensive. We used to pay $2,800 and now it cost $5,000. It can't work, because the crops not selling. Mi feel seh this ah the last year mi ah go do it fah," said Powell, the frustration evident in his voice.

A couple metres from where Powell grows his melons, thyme and cucumber, we found Eunice on his hands and knees over his tomatoes, removing weeds. He, too, admitted that the current state of agriculture in his parish is frustrating.

"It bad, man. And mi hear that the price of fertiliser going to raise again," he said. "Ah lef mi out fi lef it now because mi not getting nothing out of it. Mi not making any money and the things them too expensive. Sometimes not even water we have fi di crops them. Mi just buy two bag of mould fi $10,000 and it look like mi have to go back fi another one again and mi can't afford it."


These scotch bonnet pepper plants wilt under the harsh heat on a farm in St Elizabeth.

Like Powell, Eunice has been a farmer in Nain for nearly seven years. He cultivates tomatoes, thyme, cucumbers and peppers, which he sells to vendors, who sell at markets all over the island.

Not surprisingly, the farmers say they are not ecstatic about the new multi-million-dollar pledge the JLP Government made to the agricultural sector.

"When we get some assistance we will be glad, but right now, we don't see or hear nothing to be excited about," Powell told the Sunday Observer.

A visit to other farming communities in the parish, such as Cheapside, Goshen and Junction, revealed similar complaints from farmers, who said they are finding it hard to make ends meet.

Wilbert Barnes, who grows scotch bonnet peppers, escallion, pumpkins and several other crops on his eight acres close to Goshen, said he is willing to start planting cassava, provided that he will receive regular assistance from the Government.

"I think it's a good idea. There used to be a cassava factory in Goshen, but it mash dung," said Barnes. "Mi willing fi plant 10 acres right now. People used to plant it here but they couldn't get no market for it, so them stop. Right now, it's a major struggle fi di small farmers. We need a lot of assistance. We need tractors to help clear the land fi at least make a start."

According to a mother and son farming team the Sunday Observer encountered drawing water from a 'well' in their yard on our way to Junction, cassava was once a very popular crop in their neck of the woods. But, they pointed out, only a few local buyers supported the farmers, like Miss Alma Bramwell, by purchasing the crop to make bammies. The bitter cassava, we were informed, is also a one-year crop.

In Junction, Rupert Roache practices subsistence farming on his family plot growing carrots, corn, pumpkin, escallion and sweet cassava, which he sells to vendors for $30 per pound.

"When the demand is there, I make good sales," Roache informed the Sunday Observer. "The water supply not too wonderful either because this is a very dry area. So we have to get water from the New Forest pumping station. I would be willing to plant more cassava, but I don't have enough land for it. I am a retired man with multiple myeloma, so I taking it easy for now," he laughed.

What Axel says prompts many thoughts worth pursuing.
There are, as Axel points out, many possibilities for farming in TB, and he gets to the meat of the matter, as well as the problems, and the challenges. With thought and cooperation, the farmers ought to be able to meet those challenges. Interesting, this thread.

Maybe the government should lease some land and start employing people to farm. I think Tufton should look in to this one. The Jamaican government was to slack for years. Bruce come up with some new ideas NOW!!!!

Another problem is all the chemicals used - especially by farmers who don't follow directions for one reason or another. Monsnto and the like have really done there job here - a lot of farmers think they can't grow anything with that "help". And there is little or no regulation. The St. Elizabeth Ital Farmers Co-op is doing a great job - they just need to get more farmers involved.

better start planting cassava cuz the agricultural minister says it will soon get into fashion

I wonder how many farmers in TB/St E compost all vegetable matter - all vegetable kitchen scraps, egg shells (but no meat scraps) - to spread on veggie "patches." i know they are onto the idea of mulching with a loose mulch of hay, to conserve water. I know some people feed their veg scraps to their pigs, etc. We keep a year-round compost heap - into it goes all scraps from the kitchen, including coffee grounds. Add yard refuse, leaves, small twigs, etc. No big deal to it: turn it once in a while, and then when it's "finished" it makes wonderful fertilizer, which is often called "black gold." Then it gets spread on the vegetable patches - a fertilizer full of all good things. Get rid of the chemicals!

I support eating more vegetables. Expecially vegetables grown without any chemical fertilizer. The slogan make your food your medicine and your medicine your food comes to mind.

its really nice seeing posting of discouragement of chemicals.Belly full now ,but health will pay the price later.I too encourage farmer in thier uphill climb ,hold the faith there a time for everything upon this land .I do hope they will reconsider the cannel project and regenerate the water to a more usefull source.My brother has been doing some orangic farming ,picking water melon twenty add lbs and one sweet potatoes five lbs ,now fertilizer,we have to use wood to suport the limbs of the mango ,orange and june plum trees when they bearing ,now form of chemical.

About 30 years ago there was a Prime Minister who encouraged us to "eat what we grow and grow what we eat". Maybe we can come full circle now and realize that the essence of this philosophy is not political, but simply practical and, more importantly, essential. The importation of food into an agricultural community, as most of us realize, is suicidal.

Likewise, the importation of fish (kept somewhat edible by embalming powder!) is a vexation to those of us who care about what's left of our fishing industry.

My heart goes out to these men, and women, who toil ceaselessly in the sun and the waves to feed their families. It's really nice to see that some of us still care.