I’m not sure how much advise was being given last year when the powers that be were made aware that we would be in a serious drought at this time. I wasn’t thinking like a farmer then.
I am sure if they were aware of the impending drought, no one thought it would be this bad and so no one took the time to prepare the lowly peasants for what was coming….until now of course. We are the perpetual reactionaries so forgive me if I am not at all impressed with the National Environment and Planning Agency’s (NEPA’s) effort to urge local farmers to ‘consider planting drought tolerant crops’. Shouldn’t this urging have been done before the drought began and the farmers are now losing everything they have.
Anyway, NEPA recommends such crops as sweet potato, cassava, peanut and pine because of their ability to thrive without much water.
As I am a problem solver, I will start looking at ways to help us survive. In the meantime, I am sure my fellow small space Posh Farmers are not having a major problem since they will have enough recycled water to go around.
My posh farm is in serious trouble. There isn’t enough water to maintain the crops. I am out of recycled water (you can only do so much and no more laundry) and the Ministry has now made it illegal to attach a hose to your pipe. This came in last weekend’s paper (The Gleaner) and I am sure they did not include my farm in the numbers 🙂
16,000 farmers affected by drought, says Agricultural Society
Published: Saturday August 2, 2014 | 10:23 am
The Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) says 16,000 farmers have been affected and close to a billion dollars lost, in the current drought affecting Jamaica.
JAS president, Senator Norman Grant, provided the statistics just before yesterday’s launch of the sixty second annual agriculture and industrial show at the Denbigh Show Ground in May Pen, Clarendon.
He says domestic food production, which was set for exponential expansion in 2014, has fallen sharply in the second quarter of this year.
The Senator says he remains optimistic that the sector will rebound and avoid a major crisis.
In endorsing the government’s 30 million dollar support programme, Grant says through the intervention, farmers are able to get water and new crops.
In an update last week, acting Agriculture Minister, Derrick Kellier, said there is no need for panic about a possible food shortage.
Kellier said there is a sufficient supply of local staples such as tubers, bananas and plantains.
He added that while 1,600 hectares of crops and pastures valued over $900 million has been lost to drought or fire, the total area of arable land under production is approximately 200,000 hectares.
On Wednesday I went to Mandeville to give a presentation. It went well…but on my way back on the Melrose bypass, and approximately 80 kilometres from Kingston, I realized that I was low on petrol….the fuel light on the dashboard was my clue 😮
The next town with a petrol station is Porus which is some distance away (not sure exactly how far). Anyway, I decided to proceed optimistically to this destination. I must tell you, I have a fault…I do not carry cash, unless I know I am going to need it. On going to Mandeville I used the toll road. I was very busy making my way to the toll when it occurred to me that I had no cash… and once you are on the toll road, you can’t exit without paying the toll. Fortunately, a colleague was also on route to Mandeville and some distance behind. I waited for her at the toll booth and was fortunate to get J$1,000 on loan. So back to my driving on fumes.
As I entered Porus, I was relieved that I succeeded in making the trip. I proudly drove up to the gas pump with the intention of purchasing petrol with my credit card…only to be advised that in this day and age, the petrol station did not accept cards – CASH ONLY. I checked the change from my $J1,000 loan and deducted what I would need to pay the toll back into Kingston. Coupled with the coins in the car, I calculated that I could spare J$300 for fuel. At J$142 per litre, I was being overly optimistic but I figured I could take the chance on J$300 petrol until I got to the next petrol station.
I got to the next station and again proceeded to the pump…only to be told, they do not accept cards…and there was no ATM in sight. I prayed over my car, held my head high and proceeded to subsequent petrol stations, only to be told the same thing. In desperation, I proceeded to what would be the final petrol station before entering the toll road and was again advised that they do not accept cards, and they did not have an ATM.
Thankfully, the 2 litres that I had topped up with was enough to get rid of the warning light so I proceeded to the toll road. I remembered watching a 60 Minutes programme once where they looked into what it meant when the gas warning light came on. I prayed that they were correct and drove at a steady speed of 80 km/hour even though the limit was 110 km/hr. They advised that a steady pace made for a more efficient use of fuel.
I am happy to report that I made it into Kingston on J$300 petrol and prayer, and successfully purchased petrol at a station that accepted cards. It was a nerve-wracking journey though, and there was indeed a lesson there – Always keep some cash on my person. It doesn’t have to be a lot, just enough to pay the toll, fix a punctured tire or two and buy petrol.
Weeds….and a Funeral 😦
On Saturday, I spent some time posh farming. This week it was more for therapy than anything else. My friend was to be buried on Sunday and I really wasn’t sure I could survive it. I think I’m actually still in denial since I refuse to believe he is dead. I went to the funeral hoping to see someone else’s photo on the programme. I am seeing his photo, so I didn’t look in the casket. To do so would make it too real and I am not ready for this to be real. So I focus on my posh farm.
Despite the drought the weeds keep coming. I know my watering the farm, does not allow me to only water the seedlings, I water the entire bed, which then cause the weeds to grow. What I noticed though was that the weeds were doing better than the seedlings. My Rastafarian neighbour says that I disturbed the roots of the seedlings when I transplanted them and as such they are having to reestablish themselves. Nevertheless, they are doing well. So I had to weed some of the patch. I must tell you that I had no energy to do this but I pushed and did a part of the sorrel section. It looked much better and I will need to do some more next weekend. I am happy to report that they are all surviving well but I have to make sure I water them each evening. The water from the washing machine and kitchen sink is very handy for this. In a drought, we need to recycle and re-purpose as much as possible.
The weeding process had me thinking about the word ‘weed’. I am using it a lot these days but what does it really mean? I never thought about it before, but it is both a noun and a verb. Where we refer to Marijuana as weed, do the growers weed the weed?
What I found when I went looking was quite interesting?
I was shocked however by the definition for weeding as put forward by the urban dictionary. It is plucking the hairs from your girl’s vagina, especially while high 😮.
Anyway, this blog is about posh farming…so keep farming.
Image from 
Posh Farming 