Excess food crops not a problem in Hanover, but ...

WESTERN BUREAU:

While farmers in St Elizabeth, Manchester and other parts of the island are lamenting that COVID-19 has driven a wedge between them and the markets where they traditionally sell their crops, their Hanover counterparts have no such issue as they are able to easily dispose of their excess produce.

According to Raymond Reid, the parish manager for the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) in Hanover, agricultural production in that parish does not involve many perishable crops, and as such, they have not experienced a major problem in disposing of the excess.

“In terms of crop production, we do not have much setbacks in the parish. Earlier on, we had some issue with lettuce, and we (at RADA) were able to assist the farmers by getting it to a marketer,” Reid told The Gleaner.

According to him, farmers in Hanover are unique in their production methods, causing them not to produce much excess at the end of any period. That, he argued, puts them in a sort of safe zone as it relates to excess production at this time.

NOT MUCH CHALLENGES

“Agricultural production in Hanover is not as it is in other parishes, like Trelawny and St Elizabeth, in terms of the perishable crops, so we do not have much challenges where that is concerned,” explained Reid.

He further stated that, in terms of crops harvested, the yield, to date, has not been the best because of the drought which the parish is still experiencing, but the farmers are holding their own as far as production is concerned.

Hot pepper, sweet pepper, dasheen, yams, plantains, banana and turmeric are some of the crops the RADA officer said are being produced in the parish in good quantities.

However, he expressed concern about the ageing population of the farmers in the parish, arguing that it is not good for the future of food production in the parish.

“I am rather upset because right now, even in the yam belt in the Cascade area, the average age of the farmers there is about 50 years. I am not seeing where the younger generation is really coming into farming,” Reid said.

Reid, who took up responsibility for Hanover in November 2019, said he is still doing his assessments on the ageing farmer situation to see how it can be remedied.

“What I am seeing is not positive because we have a lot of idle lands, so to speak, and they (the young people) are not into farming, and the older farmers cannot manage. I am not seeing the succession plan,” said Reid, who has been putting on training sessions across the parish in the hope of attracting new farmers.