WEST Watooka, Wismar, Linden, has more than 100 farmers and they do not complain despite many challenges. These people are very positive in their thinking and look past many things to make a living.

One such person is Aubrey Marshal, a cash-crop farmer, who was working on his farm when the team met him. Despite the blazing sunshine he was not deterred and was seen clearing weeds and transplanting calaloo seedlings to beds he had prepared.

Although he resides in Silver Town he would make his way to his farm every day via his bicycle and has in his employ three persons from the community. He only goes home to take a rest and have a meal. He has been a farmer for more than 30 years and is cultivating his family’s land and has four acres of cabbage, pak choi, turmeric, boulanger, calaloo, fine thyme, peppers, celery, tomatoes and other crops.

Marshal would sell his produce at the McKenzie Market and in Wismar and when he has enough he would share among villagers. “This farming life is not about flamboyance but entails hard labour and there is no machine to assist, using the hands with some tools one has to get down and get dirty to grow food, he said.

Marshal is a simple man, whose main source of income is farming.

The Citrus Farmer
The Pepperpot Magazine also met Lyrick Wilson, who has acres of citrus, other fruits and cash crops. He also rears chickens and pigs and works alone.

The father of six related that he lives with his wife and that is his companion, who would prepare the meals and tend to the home while he does the farming. The 71-year-old is full of energy and has the determination to continue farming, a task most young men are not willing to take up.

His entire backyard has lemons, limes, organs, tangerines, carambolas (five finger), soursops, mangoes, coconuts, guavas, plums and a lots of other fruits and vegetables. Wilson would sell his produce at the market and he has some wholesale buyers that would visit his farm to buy.

He has five acres of farmland he has utilised to cultivate all kinds of crops and has another plot at Hill Top, also in West Watooka. Wilson told the Pepperpot Magazine that his father used to be a farmer and the lands belonged to him, but after he (his father) passed away at age 83 years old, he decided to take up farming and relocated from One Mile, Wismar to West Watooka.

As a small boy, Wilson used to go farming with his father and he didn’t like it at first, but as he got older he developed a liking for farming and told himself that he will do it when he gets mature.

“I get everything from farming, this house and it feeds me comfortably, so what more can I ask for and I don’t have to work with anyone, but maintaining the land is a challenge, he said. This farm is one of a kind, clean and well-kept and all his trees and crops are in order.

These crops are all organic and no fertiliser is used and he would use fowl or cow manure to put on the beds for his plants, but noted that the soil in itself is very fertile. “I told myself this is my work and I make it fun, but it is not easy and at 71 years old I am doing it by the grace of God and still has some energy left for another day,” he said.

Wilson stated that he doesn’t see the need to have helpers and he has a motto, ‘One man can do a lot’ and that keeps him going, regardless of the uphill task of farming on a large scale.