Harvesting success… small farmers to get greenhouse

CM Lumsden taking notes on the bag and coir planting medium.

Moreover he emphasizes that small farmers depend on rainfall to water their crops since they generally “don’t have access to irrigation…so if the rain doesn’t fall then we have a problem.” That problem involves loosing a harvest and therefore ‘drying up’ their livelihood.

Of course the other side of the coin is also quite devastating. Heavy rainfall or hurricane rains can result in a potential harvest being washed ‘down the drain’; again resulting in a significant loss of income. Furthermore, heavy rainfall can restrict access to some small farms and threaten the very lives of farmers. “When there is lots of rain, then I can’t come around here (my farm), because we have two rivers and I remember once we were here reaping and rain was coming and it was 4 of us ladies and the rain came and when we go down there we couldn’t cross the river, we couldn’t cross,” shares Amri Campbell a cash crop farmer from Trinityville, St. Thomas.

These small farmers however will soon have the opportunity to sow and reap more dependably when they include greenhouse farming in their operations. Greenhouse farming involves using a building to grow plants and allows for certain crops to be grown throughout the year, in spite of external conditions like the weather. Using this technology is therefore a vital component in securing food supplies. Under the European Union /Christian Aid Sustainable Livelihoods Project, small farmers from Spring Bank, Trinityville and Mount Vernon will gain access to a greenhouse in their respective communities. They have also recently been brought up to speed on how greenhouses work.

Consultant McPherson explaining the transfer of seedlings

Thirteen beneficiaries received comprehensive training in the following areas: crop culture, plant nutrition and fertilization, integrated pest management, plant growing environment, structure and systems, use of protected horticultural and agricultural practices and correct fabrication of the greenhouse. Lumsden remarked that the topics were challenging but that the “enthusiasm of the farmers helped to make them understandable.”

Practical demonstrations also helped. Farmers were “given the opportunity to see for themselves the various solutions and equipment involved,” and were taken on field trips to see various greenhouse operations. From the training Lumsden learnt that “with greenhouse farming, all factors including time (in terms of reaping and sowing) are more precise in comparison to outdoor farming.” He also now understands that “harvesting (in a greenhouse) is best done in the morning hours since there is less heat to encounter.”  So how will this knowledge and access change things for the small farmers? Well firstly “in comparison with outdoor farming, the difference in the greenhouse is that you can harvest a particular plant for a year, but outdoors is only a few weeks. So like with a tomato plant you harvest it for a year with consistent quality, but outdoors it’s only a few weeks and the quality varies. And you have more control over pests and diseases,” Lumsden explains.

Jody Ann looking at the lettuce bed

With the training lessons freshly rooted in his mind, Lumsden however cautions that while the “greenhouse would produce great yields, it has to be right from the start, the whole discipline of greenhouse has to be upheld; it takes a lot of discipline.” “The important aspect of using a greenhouse is to get the know-how and then you can experiment,” he wisely shares.

Land is currently being cleared in all three communities for the erection of the greenhouses. Their construction is one of the main components of the Sustainable Livelihoods project being implemented by notable NGO the Women’s Resource and Outreach Centre Ltd. (WROC). WROC’s Executive Director Dorothy Whyte hopes that the greenhouse will indeed help to secure the livelihoods of small farmers and build capacity in the respective communities.

For more information send your emails to communications@wrocjamaica.org.