Young farmer grateful for ID Pioneers' grant

When Christina Palmer, a 34-year-old farmer from Comfort Hall, Manchester, saw the Joseph Wilson Young Farming Entrepreneurs Grant up for grabs, she quickly applied online, even though she had passed the required age limit.

And, as fate would have it, she was selected for a $40,000 grant out of a total of $160,000 set aside for youth by a local outreach group called ID Pioneers.

Palmer told The Gleaner last Friday that she took a leap of faith and applied for the grant because she has major water woes and needed a tank and catchment system to conduct rainwater harvesting for her chicken coop and slaughterhouse.

GRATEFUL

A $40,000 grant may seem little to many, but to Palmer, it is a lot and will now save her from walking with buckets of water from her house to her fowl coop each day.

“I was saying I'm passed the age, so I was wondering if I should go ahead and apply.

“I'm really grateful, because I was thinking that I needed a slaughterhouse and was wondering where I was going to get running water from. I told myself that I have to set up one, so I was going through my phone that day when I saw where they were offering the grant, and I applied. When I was called for the interview I was accepted, so I am really, really grateful for it,” she said.

Like many farmers in Manchester, Palmer laments that they have not had running water for years.

“We don't have no pipe. Sometimes we go to the parish tank and catch water when rain don't fall, so that's where I get it (water) from most of the time,” she said.

Palmer was once a part of the youthful demographic who spurned farming, so she sought jobs elsewhere. However, the high transportation and food costs made the task of going to work seem unprofitable.

She worked at Bashco in Mandeville between 2019 and 2021, and at the Ministry of Health and Wellness, on contract, for a year as a vector control worker.

“Mi a go just stick to farming, because once mi plant something and mi see it start grow, mi always a go fall in love,” she said.

“At Bashco, my contract was up and they called me back to work, but I said, I'm not going to choose it, because when me check out the expense to go to work, that's just taxi fare and lunch, so mi seh it's better I stay home and do my own little thing. Mi a work more than wah mi work at Bashco, so mi just choose that,” Palmer told The Gleaner.

Farming makes her independent.

“If mi raise my own chicken, by six weeks' time mi can see something,” she said.

NO NEED FOR DRUM

Palmer said she feels really good about setting up her catchment system with the Joseph Wilson Young Farming Entrepreneurs Grant, and now she no longer needs to buy a drum for her fowl coop.

“I feel really great, yuh nuh; really good. I really appreciate it. It's good to see people (who) are out there trying to help young farmers.”

Palmer told The Gleaner that she has been in farming since she was 13 years ago, and her first crop was carrot. Now, she has a mixture of plantain, banana and sorrel.

“Sometimes I plant pumpkin; every little thing that mi hand catch after, I will grow it,” she said.

Palmer also rears livestock that includes goats.

“I used to do chicken, but I kinda cut down from the prices of feed gone up,” Palmer, mother of four children, said.

The major challenge she faces, in addition to water woes, includes finding market for the crops she grows.

“Sometimes I don't have nobody to sell the crops to due to where I live in Comfort Hall. Balaclava is close by, but it doesn't seem as if that market is up and running,” Palmer said.

“Sometimes, I have to give it (the crops reaped) to the school. More while, mi don't have the portion to sell, so mi just give it to the Comfort Hall Primary School,” she added.

She also complained of experiencing losses through praedial larceny with persons stealing her yams, but, as she really wants to remain in farming, she overlooks her challenges.

“I grew up seeing my mother and father do farming, so I just do the same thing. I was out there working many times, and I have to leave it and come back straight to farming,” she said.

This year, ID Pioneers also awarded youth farmers Deshawn Farquhar, Yakira Montaque and Brigitte Rattray with a $30,000 cash grant each.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com