THE West Front Road community conducted its second seed-planting exercise at their cooperative garden in the compound of the Youth Challenge Guyana (YCG) office at Lot 274 Ebenezer Drive.

According to YCG’s Executive Director Dimitri Nicholson, the Urban Agriculture Project is aimed at developing the skills, knowledge and talent of the residents to advance food and nutrition security in the community.  It has seen residents cultivating beds of ochro, bora, tomato and callaloo.

This second seed-planting exercise is aimed at expanding the yield production for those participating in the community project.
Nicholson noted that the “cooperative garden has been a great initiative for those who wish to create their own little gardens filled with seasoning and vegetables”, as a way to move away from chemically produced crops.

According to the YCG Director, the venture is supportive of the Guyana School of Agriculture (GSA), which provided seedlings to start the West Front Road Community Urban Agriculture Project.

GSA representative Oswald Nurse has been equipping participants with the necessary technical skills to cultivate the garden. Nurse said this is in keeping with GSA’s mission of offering theoretical and practical training in agriculture and helping to develop, manage and operate farms and undertakings of an agricultural nature.

Currently, the bora cultivation at the garden is covered with ant-borne Aphids, a common enemy to bora, that sucks the sap of the plants. The insects have a symbiotic relationship with ants which ‘milk’ the Aphids to retrieve some of the sap.
Nurse explained that the residents will be using an organic solvent that includes onion juices and garlic among other ingredients to remove the insects, and later tackle the ant issue to ensure the crops’ safety.

The Department of Public Information (DPI) spoke to a few of the participants who were grateful to be involved in the project. They said that much was learnt through the project, especially with regard to the protection of garden crops through organic means, as opposed to chemical means.