Prison on mission to boost food security

Dodds Prison is aiming to boost its food security and maintain a high level of food self-sufficiency, farm manager Valiance Holder said on Tuesday.

In addition to a plan to acquire two greenhouses, he said efforts were underway to expand crop and livestock production.

Following the graduation ceremony for five inmates and five prison officers who completed an aquaculture farming course, Holder told Barbados TODAY that about 90 per cent of the produce grown at the facility in St Philip is used at the prison.

Sweet potatoes, cassavas, yams, pumpkins, cucumbers, carrots, squash, tomatoes, watermelons, chives, parsley, turmeric, and marjoram are planted on a ten to 12-acre plot of land, while Blackbelly sheep, Landrace and Large White (breeds of pigs) and Redpoll cows are also reared on the compound.

Holder said plans were in train to restart raising broilers.

He reported that two major COVID-19 outbreaks at the prison last year had resulted in a reduction in the amount of labour designated to the farm; however, the inmates were, in some instances, still able to produce a surplus and produce was donated to the neighbouring Male Unit of the Government Industrial School as well as the St Philip District Hospital.

With a donation of $50 000 from the Maria Holder Memorial Trust, the prison was able to set up an aquaculture centre for fish farming and growing crops like lettuce and sweet basil.

Holder said this would further improve the prison’s food security as the inmates could now grow tilapia to eat while simultaneously growing crops that could be difficult to grow in the open field.

The farm manager explained that the aquaculture course would be rotated on a three-month basis and the five inmates who just graduated would be required to train ten others in each rotation.

In his remarks at the graduation ceremony, Acting Superintendent of Prisons DeCarlo Payne said he was pleased with the success of the aquaculture programme which started in 2021 but due to challenges associated with COVID-19 took a while to get off the ground.

He said the training would come in handy for the inmates on their release as they could develop their own aquaculture businesses and not have to rely on anyone to hire them.

Payne said he wanted other inmates to get on board the programme – especially as it was being supported by the Fisheries Division and the Barbados Trust Fund – and contribute to the economy in a meaningful way when their sentences were completed.

Aquaculture expert Kristina Adams trained the inmates and prison officers and said she was impressed with the drive and energy they gave the project, as well as their determination to keep it going when COVID-19 hampered its progress. (SZB)