THERE are still too many farmers in the Caribbean who are hesitant to move away from ‘time-tested’  traditional methods of farming towards  modern methods that can raise their production levels.While lamenting such resistance to change, seen for example in the production of small ruminants, Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO)  Consultant and Artificial Insemination (AI) expert from Jamaica,  Dr Gabrielle Young feels that the region’s farmers can overcome this attitude and  attain the  level of commercial  farming seen in  the United States and Europe.

“Attitudinal change is happening already, but more is required. I do believe that the Caribbean has the  potential,” she  said.
In that light, she said further that “especially Guyana, Guyana has the land, Guyana has the water, has the resources, has the forage and your farmers can do just as well as anybody else in America or Europe.”

Dr Young was the main training resource person at a workshop  on artificial insemination  for goats,  sponsored by the  FAO in collaboration with the  Guyana  Livestock Development Authority  (GLDA)  and held at Mon Repos last week.

The beneficiaries were livestock  technicians from Guyana and five other countries – Suriname, Grenada, St Lucia, Dominica and Antigua.

The FAO’s programme  at Mon Repos aimed  at teaching  the  participants the technology for transferring  semen from high quality animals to  traditional breeds so that they  can produce  offspring that will increase the income earning capacity of farmers;  enhance  farm family income and reduce poverty.
During an interview with the Guyana Chronicle, Dr Young recalled interactions with farmers in her earlier years as an extension officer, trying to get  them  to adopt improved methods of production.

“I met farmers who would tell me: ‘Look, young girl I been doing this thing before you were born.’ At first  I was much  put off by this rebuff. But as I got more experienced, I developed a come-back. When they said that, I would  say to them: ‘Yes, you been doing this before I was born, but before I was born,  you  had a two-pound chicken that you cooked on Sunday, and that was what you  were happy with because that was what you could have accomplished. But right now, we want a four-pound chicken in six weeks; so if you want to stay with ‘before I was born’, sure you can have your yard-fowls running around in subsistence farming. But  we  are moving on…to higher levels of  production.’”
‘GET WITH THE PROGRAMME’
She observed that such a rebuttal  usually left the old-timers nonplussed.
“Maybe even got them to thinking, I think. But more of our farmers need to listen closely to their technicians; to take their advice. Many more farmers need to  embrace  new technologies such as genetic technology/improved  genetic materials for plants and animals, and  get with the programme as such.”

She said that the only exception may be a person who has a full-time job, and is just keeping a few goats which he or she   may end  up cooking and  eating.

By Clifford Stanley