Farmers on the brink of bankruptcy
Published:Friday | April 1, 2022 | 12:05 AMChristopher Serju/Senior Gleaner Writer
An occupation which demands hours of back-breaking toil in the broiling sun, with no break on public holidays or weekends – farming is getting a lot harder as the turmoil in the Ukraine continues to deepen, with growing adverse impact on the global supply chain of agricultural products. This is being manifested locally in steep and unpredictable increases in the costs of inputs, on a trajectory which seems likely to thrust farmers on the path of being unprofitable and unaffordable.
This was the main takeaway from three farmers The Gleaner interviewed during a recent trip to the former Bernard Lodge Sugar Estate in St Catherine.
At 37 years old, Clayton Wilson has spent the last 15 years tilling the soil, cultivating various crops, and has encountered many challenges. But not like what is happening, as the rapidly rising costs of fertilisers, chemicals – pesticides, weedicides and herbicides, among other things – make is impossible to do any pre-planning in terms of costing their crops.
The Gleaner team caught with him weeding a plot of melons, which is just coming into bearing, using a household knife. He had been at it for more than six hours.
“From the plowing of the land, setting the seedlings and transplant them, and spraying at different times, the crop already cost me at least $300,000. Now, when it come in, people (higglers) a go tell you say, bwoy, the most them can pay is $30 a pound and you can't even make back half a million, or the one million weh you spend. We have our family fi feed and bills fi pay – electricity and water – so sometimes you not even make back the money so that you can go back a shop,” he explained.
“So me woulda really like fi ask the prime minister fi do suppen 'bout that, because farmers under a lot of pressure, and we haffi pay labourers the same, so everything is a cost right now.”
Little assistance
Wilson, who is registered with the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), the national extension service, said sometimes the agency does provide a little assistance in terms of seeds but needs to do much. He cited the lack of a consistent tracker services as a major concern, pointing out that two tractors should be available, but most times one is down and the other is usually in high demand.
“Sometimes you have you crop [you] want [to] plant and you don't get the tractor on time, so you end up losing some of the seedlings weh you sow inna the nursery. So is a lot of struggle, and it nuh easy.”
Operating on eight acres of land planted out in tomato, sweet pepper, melon, onion, hot pepper, callaloo, sweet corn, cabbage, lettuce and pak choi, which he sows in cycles, Wilson cited the fact that a small bottle of Alverde, an effective imported pesticide for controlling worms, jumped from $5,000 to $10,000, catching him off guard and out of pocket during a recent visit to the farm store.
Farmers are trapped in a vicious cycle, he said, since using such high-cost inputs is important to ensure high levels of production for quality crops.
In a plot next door, Nordia Alladice was in a race to reap sweet corn, before worms got to them. This is because she could not afford another application of Alverde, the cost of which would have seriously dented chances of making a profit. Having just received an order for 10 dozen sweet corns from a satisfied customer, the farmer was in a quandary.
“The usual price is $1,200 a dozen, but now we cannot sell for that price any more and she is anticipating that original price, while we cannot sell for $1,200 any more because it is costing us a lot more. And input costs are so high, it is hard for us to sustain the farming. Sometimes we can't afford the fertiliser nor the spray, because right now worm a kill we. That is why you see me haffi a try and pick them out fast, because the prices a kill we fi buy spray. Me can't manage it, costs too high.”
Alladice, has been farming over the last five years and had, up to now, been able to eke out a living, but is not too enthused about the future.
“Either we going to give up on farming or something, but we don't know. Because we don't see a way out of this while the prices going up and when you ready to reap, you cannot benefit back to the amount of money that you have spent, because sometimes prices go down to all $20 a pound. How must a farmer gain something from $20 a pound, while you are spending over a $100,000 in less than a week to maintain your farm?
“I think the prime minister needs to intervene in this thing, and needs to go around, get some insight into the far-reaching impact of these price increases on us. Because when you put out so much effort into your farm and spending so much, and at the end of day when you are supposed to reap, you are not benefiting nothing. And you cannot say anything because when higglers come, is $20 them offering you.”
In another section of Bernard Lodge, Hudson Clennon was awaiting buyers for tomatoes which had been pre-ordered. After 30 years in farming, he has never seen harder times, explaining that having bought fertiliser in bulk last year, he was very concerned about going back to market as he prepares for another crop cycle.
“Catastrophic” was his take on the situation now facing farmers, “If you nuh careful, it will put you of business. If the prices (of inputs) rise to a certain level, your business gonna fold up after a while because your cost is going to outrun your income. And if your cost start to outrun your income, how you going to survive?”
Like volunteer work
Clennon, who lives beyond the Dovecot Memorial Park in the parish, is also paying more for fuel. It now costs $12,000 a week to service his farming vehicle, up from about $8,000.
Sheldon, a buyer who turned up during our interview to get his regular supply of Plummy tomatoes, explained that he travels from Old Harbour to support Clennon because of the consistently good quality of his produce.
Many farmers were already operating with a razor-thin margin of profitability before the latest rounds of increases, according to the veteran farmer, since many like himself deliberately do not factor in the cost of their labour into the operating costs.
“If you were to draw your salary like in other businesses, then you are going to run into bankruptcy. This is not something me think; is something me know,” he declared emphatically. “Sometimes is like you doing voluntary work. There comes a time, though, when things go right and you can make a money and do something for yourself, but on a regular basis we can't do it, because the farmer is like a volunteer worker.”