Water rationing for farmers – Andwele

The Barbados Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (BADMC) will once again be rationing the water supplied to farmers at its Spring Hall Land Lease Project amid the forecasted drought conditions threatening to wreak havoc on yet another crop.

Dr Jamekal Andwele, Technical Officer at the corporation made the revelation during a recent press briefing with local climatologists and meteorologists.

He revealed that the Barbados Water Authority’s (BWA) decision to ration water last year took farmers by surprise and forced the BADMC to reduce their own rations down to two hours per day in some cases. While stressing there was no need to panic this time around, Andwele admitted that a solution was desperately needed for many rural farmers whose wellbeing is directly tied to the success of their crops.

“There were drought conditions, low water levels and even some instances where our levels went completely dry. We were facing new issues because our pumps were clogged with slush from the low water levels and because of that, many farming districts went without water for three months as we replaced the pumps and as the water levels slowly began to improve,” he disclosed.

Hoping to prevent a repeat of the issues, the technical officer revealed the BADMC would soon be installing new water metric metres at Spring Hall St. Lucy which will allow them to measure the water usage of each farmer and limit their water use based on how much produce and livestock they are raising.

“So a farmer with ten acres growing a crop that needs significant amounts of water, he would get more water to wet his crops compared to a farmer who has one acre of something like Cassava or Sweet Potato which might not require the same amount of water. That is a pilot project that we want to start in either February or March,” Andwele disclosed. 

He added that over the last three months, officials from the Ministry of Agriculture have been engaging with the BWA and funding from the Caribbean Development Bank, to help them capture surface runoff from gullies and drainage canals before reaching the ocean. The statutory body will also be carrying out research, which will guide them in a quest to catch and store their own water for irrigation.

Since Andwele’s comments, Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced an initiative that will see farmers planting more crops to supply institutions like the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) and the School Meals department. Farmers from Spring Hall will reportedly be key stakeholders in the venture, but it is still unclear how drought conditions might affect the effort.

Meanwhile Chief Agricultural Officer, Lennox Chandler believes poultry farmers will be hardest hit by impending drought conditions and have been urged to rethink their stocking practices.

“A lot of heat is given off in pens because you could have as many as 30 000 birds, which adds to the situation. So we are advising them to lower their density to a level that they could get enough circulation in the pens,” he suggested.

Chandler advised other livestock producers to store high quality foliage of the grass and conserve it by placing it in special containers.

For planters of fresh produce, he suggested that the focus be crops like cassava, sweet potato and others which do not require large amounts of water.
kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb