Help coming soon for rural farmers

Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Indar Weir has stated that a water project will be rolled out soon which would assist farmers not only in St. Lucy, but in St. Philip as well.

Weir said the wells in St. Lucy would be cleaned so that when it rained the water would go back into the aquifers.

He added that work on the water project had started and two dams would be built at River, St. Philip and one at Springhall, St. Lucy.

“It would be a metered system and farmers in Mount Poyer, which is a dry area, will share with the farmers in Springhall as with other farmers,” the minister added.

He said an irrigation system was among the plans for Mount Poyer and wells had already been recommissioned and farmers there would soon be getting some ease when the new system was up and ready.

Farmer Sherrie Stevenson of New Heights Agro Farms, Mount Poyer, St. Lucy,  one of the farmers in the Farmers’ Empowerment and Enfranchisement Drive (FEED) of the Barbados Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (BADMC), had complained of water problems at her farm and of others in the northern parish.

“I started with the rain and was hoping that someone would have come to my assistance as water is the lifeblood of farmers, but nothing has happened although there is a well nearby,” she noted.

She said the farmers at the Springhall land lease project were faring better and she was hoping that help was not far off as it was putting immense pressure on her to keep on going.

“The farmers at Springhall have been in the business far longer than we have been, but as we are young people I thought and was hoping that things for us would have been better.

We have been given land but no water. All we want is water and things would change for us,” she noted.

Stevenson said there was a well nearby, but repairs needed to be carried out to put it back in working condition and that could go a long way in remedying the water problems she and other farmers were facing in St. Lucy.

Minister Weir said too that there was much going on in agriculture including a legislative framework to tackle praedial larceny, the repeal of the Three Houses Spring Act as well as the controlled use of  pesticides.  (TT)