With a successful business of growing pineapples and other crops

“MY grandmother always said that one finger don’t ketch lice in the head; it gat to be two…like when you are two people that join together. Therefore she told me that you must work together in order to help to develop anything and I grew up with my grandparents, who were always taking care of livestock and planting kitchen garden,” Mary Williams told the Pepperpot Magazine.

She said that she later left her grandparents’ home to live with her mother and there she was introduced to farming at a somewhat different level. She said that her mother was engaged in pineapple and other crops farming such as sweet cassava, eddoes, pumpkin, cucumber, watermelon, all vine crops and there was general intercropping.

Mary Williams said that after graduating from school she spent just one school term as a teacher and then went back to farming. “It is not that I did not enjoy being a teacher, but maybe somehow I loved farming more,” she said. She stated that the sociocultural circumstances of her environment may have also played a part in redirecting her back into farming.

Seventh birthday
“I love farming and now I have just recently celebrated my 70th birthday and I can tell you that I had a grand time and am still rearing to keep going! I was able to enjoy a lot of the fruits and vegetables that I grow on the farm, but the only thing is that the pineapple is finished; that crop is over and so I was not able to enjoy it for my birthday,” she said. “However, my birthday was a great occasion and I was able to enjoy most of my own fruit juices – the soursop, watermelon, cherries and other good fruit juices; then I had beautiful meals – all from my farm.”

Pineapple farming
‘Aunty Mary’, who hails from Mainstay/Whyaka in Region Two (Pomeroon/Supenaam), said that first she and her mother worked their pineapple farm and after she got married her husband became a part of the farm as well; then later her children came along and as the grew, they also worked on the farm.

She explained that even after the death of her husband her love for farming has not waned and that she continues to look at cash crops, as well as others that can help to maintain a viable farm. Pineapple, she said is a crop that usually lasts for two years and so the farmer cannot successfully strive on just planting this crop, but must get involved in many more crops while waiting on the pineapple. This type of farming is called intercropping.

She said that while she enjoys farming, like any other job that a person is serious about, it can be very challenging at times, “But [it is] nothing that you cannot overcome,” she uttered.

Challenges to farming

Aunty Mary told of some of her experiences with farming.
“There is nothing that can get to you more than when the monkeys start. The monkeys does come and destroy the pine; then they do not search for the small pines, they search for the very big ones to steal. The small pines can be there but they leave them for the ripe ones; t1he big ones and they break them off and take them to give their babies and also for them to eat,” she said.

She went on to explain that the monkeys also fight back when farmers to defend their farm, explaining, “If you pelt them they pelt you back and make sounds as if they are quarrelling with you… then they work together, where if you run them with a pine in their hand they are able to throw that pine to another one who catches it and get away, not before they sound out some noise to you as if they want to tell you off.”

She stated that there are other challenges such as the acoria animal that would eat up the pumpkins, as well as some types of ants and other insects that also destroy the plants. However, they are able to manage the insects since they use herbs from the same area to put in specific places and these herbs control the insects immediately, or in a relatively short space of time, stating that insecticides are never used on their farms.

Managing home and farm
Aunty Mary said that to manage her farm and at the same time ensure that her family was always well looked after was not always easy, but emphasised that it was always a pleasure to take care of that aspect of her commitment.

“I am grateful that all my children did well. Four out of seven of my children attended Georgetown schools: Queen’s College, St. Joseph, Richard Ismael and St. Stanislaus and are all doing well, even though some of them are still interested in doing different levels of farming,” she said. “Then I am also very thankful that I never had to take any of them to the hospital because of sickness. They eat well – fresh fruits and vegetables from the farm and also maintain healthy lifestyles.”

Future plans
At 70 years of age, Aunty Mary said that she is still hoping to lead a very productive life in her community. She said that she is hoping to have the pineapple farm, which was established in the area, resuscitated as early as possible.

“We can do better. If we lose the pineapple plants, that’s it, and we don’t want to lose it. I feel that all the young people in this community who are not so productive right now can become very active and successful once the pineapple processing plant [factory] is back in operation and so I hope something can change and very soon too, in the interest of all the people in the Mainstay/Whyaka area.”