By Vanessa Braithwaite
AS part of its mission to transform Region 10 into a new agriculture frontier and to become self-sustainable within the next five years, the Region 10 Department of Agriculture is addressing this objective frontally.

The department is going to the fundamentals of what could have caused the region to become so dependent on food after experiencing a rapid decrease in agricultural production.

With Region 10 being a mining town, the interest of the youths gravitated towards possessing the skills needed for bauxite industry. Following the decline in bauxite production and the rapid scaling down of employees needed in the companies both at Linden and Aroaima, there was need for the region’s economy to diversify and agriculture plays a pivotal role in achieving this status.

With the establishment of a Regional Agriculture Department, a decision was taken to include youths in the process, more so high school students, so their interest in agriculture will be peaked at a young age. In this way, there would not be such a huge gap in the demographic, as is the case today.

In 2019, the department under the stewardship of Regional Agriculture Officer, Derick Collins, reconvened practical agriculture in schools through a shade house project. To date, seven schools are now equipped with shade houses. These include Linden Foundation Secondary School, Christianburg Wismar Secondary School, Wisburg Secondary School and the Kwakwani Secondary School.

Regional Executive Officer, Orrin Gordon, related that since the project was launched, the response has been favourable and the youths are now showing more interest in agriculture. The department would have funded and established shade houses in these schools which are now enabling the production of traditional and non-traditional crops. Technical support is also given to the students and agriculture teachers involved the project.

NURSERY SCHOOL LEVEL
After receiving such a favourable response at the secondary level, the Agriculture Department in collaboration with the Region 10 Department of Education, went a step further to introduce agriculture at the nursery level, through the Regional Gardening Competition. This reaped major success and saw several nursery schools across the region participating. The competition ran for weeks and saw the students and teachers developing a kitchen garden from scratch.

Though the competition has ended, many schools are continuing the gardening activity, which has already caught the interest of the children.

These agricultural school programmes are part of a wider effort to push agriculture as one of the leading industries in the region. The department, in collaboration with the National Agricultural Research & Extension Institute (NAREI), has also initiated the shade house project in various communities across Region 10. One of the most recent shade house community establishments was done in West Watooka, which is an agricultural hub in Linden. Over 20 shade houses were donated to subsistence farmers in the community, who have already testified of the benefits of planting under shade houses, compared to traditional farming techniques. This is part of the region’s climate smart initiative.

Last year, farmers in Region 10, particularly on the Linden Soesdyke Highway, Coomacka and communities on the Wismar shore, such as Christianburg and West Watooka, lost a significant amount of crops to flash flooding.

MUST WELCOME INITIATIVE
West Watooka farmer, Myrtle Gentle, spoke of how rainy seasons affect her production tremendously and she welcomes the help for a shade house, so she can farm all year round and not have to worry about how her family will be fed during these seasons. Gentle is a full-time farmer who supplies the Mackenzie market with low-fertiliser produce and has an overwhelming clientele. During the rainy season; however, she suffers a lot and is not able to sustain her farming. Several other farmers in West Watooka share similar sentiments and have expressed appreciation that help will come their way.

The Agriculture Department also provides training and technical support for farmers to pursue this climate smart technique, which will enable their crops to combat extreme dry periods or heavy rainfall, which causes freak storms and flash flooding.

The Community Development Council (CDC) of One Mile Extension was one of the first communities in Linden to gravitate towards the initiative. The shade houses serve as a nursery for seedlings. These seedlings are distributed to several other farmers and farming communities, all in an effort to push communal agriculture. The shade house is operated by brothers Cleveland and Oliver Tappin.

Complementing the shade house project is the Future Development Economic Strategy (FEDS) Co-operation, and approximately 25 farmers have benefitted from that training. Chairman of the Co-op, Owen DeSouza, related that the aim is to create sustainable livelihood in the farming communities as farmers are no longer able to meet demands following these destructive wet and dry seasons.

“What really happens, if we have a terrible flood, farming suffers a terrible blow in the region and we have to return to being dependent for a few mornings and so we need farming to be sustained and we are pushing for sustainability through shade house farming as that is one of the main initiatives,” DeSouza explained. Intercropping, he related, is another technique being pursued.

The shade houses also reduce instances of pests and diseases, provide adequate water in the dry season and save the crops from waterlogging in the wet season.

With the strides being made in the agricultural arena in Region 10, the region is expected to reduce its dependency on outside food markets by 40 per cent by 2022.