Ayodele Sampson’s tough but rewarding journey as a farmer
By Wendella Davidson
FROM being in an air-conditioned office where on a daily basis she donned fashionable clothing, Ayodele Sampson, a Wakenaam Island-born young single-mother said she felt ashamed when she eventually had to trade this for old clothing and venture into farming to make ends meet when the chips were down.
But cognisant of the fact that she has two children to provide for, she resolved herself to do whatever it took to ensure that she provided a good life for them and that they receive a proper education.

To this end, Ayodele, is today a proud and respected farmer whose produce of plantains, watermelons and pumpkin are widely sought after by farmers at Parika, she proudly declares. In addition, Ayodele was one of three women farmers who spoke of their challenges in the field, at a forum held recently at Herdmanston Lodge. The forum was hosted by the Produce through Enterprises and Linkages (PROPEL) Project which is funded by the Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada and is implemented by World University Service of Canada.

PROPEL has embarked on a mission aimed at creating the necessary avenues for women and youth who are in pursuit of entrepreneurial ventures in the field of agriculture.
In a one and one with the Pepperpot Magazine, Ayodele, who turns 40 years next month, took a walk down memory lane.

THE BEGINNING
Born at Melville, Wakenaam, and the eldest of three children of the Reverend James Sampson and Margaret Sampson, Ayodele attended the Belle Plaine Nursery and then San Souci Primary School on the predominantly agricultural island. She later moved to the city to attend Christ Church Secondary School, after emerging as the island’s top student when she wrote the then Common Entrance Examination.

She recalled that after completing her secondary schooling at Christ Church and then St Joseph’s High, she landed her first job at the Esso Gas Station on Regent Street, where she spent a mere three months before moving on to the Guyana and Trinidad Mutual Fire and Life Insurance Company (GTM). At GTM she spent nine years before migrating to the Caribbean Island of Antigua. Ayodele said that it was the valuable experience she gained in the accounting field while working at GTM, that led her to find a reasonable job after migrating. There, she worked her way up to acting supervisor level.

RETURNING HOME
However, she soon got into the family’s way and when things did not work out as she wanted, after being on the island for five years, she decided it was time to pack up and return home. But, returning to the land and place of her birth wasn’t easy as she thought, even with the support of her family. “Job opportunities were a no, no, on the island, and not wanting to be too dependent on my parents, I had no choice but to go into farming,” she said. Her father owned some 37 acres of land at Trollie Island, which is about an hour’s ride by boat from her home.

“At first I was ashamed, it was back-breaking work but I had to survive and I had my children. I worked, sometimes with tears streaming down my face, but then after a while, things started to look up for me,” she said. “I moved to the city, in South, where I rented an apartment so my son and daughter can get a better education. I used to be between the city and Wakenaam and when I wasn’t there my father looked over things for me.”
On Ayodele’s first big payday, she said that her father brought home $300,000 and gave her which were proceeds from harvesting and selling the produce from her farm. But soon after, she mentioned, her home was broken into and the perpetrators stole all the money, as well as Ayodele’s jewellery including a cherished wedding band that was given to her by an aunt.

“ I had my suspicions so I went to the police at East La Penitence and Ruimveldt, but instead of being helped, maybe because of my being a woman and telling them I am farmer, I was subjected to ridicule and was pushed around,” Ayodele recalled. “Just imagine, I worked honestly but the police were asking me if I was planting `weed’ because of the money I said I lost, and I was not being taken seriously. Then, I started to receive threats to my life, at one point I was told that the persons I suspected would rape myself and my daughter. That was the last straw, because at that point I realised I had no help, because even the police appeared to be on the side of the suspects. “ she said.

THREAT TO HEALTH
“II lost it, for two weeks I knew nothing. It was recommended that I be admitted to the psychiatric ward, but my father would have none of it, and instead would take me for treatment until I began to feel well again.” Ayodele says she has started going back to the farm but states that because she is still recuperating from her illness, she is assisted by three permanent staff and when the situation warrants would employ an additional two `hands’.

And, while she has had cause to scale down the cultivation on some of her farmlands because of a drought that was experienced two years ago, coupled with the sinking of the largest of her two boats, this woman farmer declared that she is determined to succeed “even though farming is a challenge.”
At the PROPEL forum, she advocated for the removal of the stigma that farmers are uneducated people; that women farmers should not be taken for granted and be given a level playing field as their male counterparts, and for there to be more networking among farmers, among other things.

Ayodele is now ever-thankful that women farmers like herself are “getting a voice” and is grateful to the PROPEL project which has been giving them tremendous support. “We women farmers need encouragement, we have been going it alone for too long and it is a long and lonely road,” she said. “My children are my motivation and even though it can at times be quite a rocky path to tread, I am proud to say I am a farmer, moreso, a woman.”