This space was created to discuss and exchange ideas about promoting good nutrition, food security and related matters – Blogmaster
709 responses to “Carmeta’s Corner”
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Excellent Dame.
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David, if you were near, you could share the harvest. Everything is organically grown. I use chicken shit fertilizer.
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Thanks
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Gave away some more callaloo, a bokchoi and some black currants today, to a neighbour who lived/worked in Africa and married an African. She is Scottish but eats what we eat.
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The okras planted 46 days ago started to flower this morning. I should be able to start harvesting by day 50. The cassava is ready. The pumpkin vines are flowering too, so I should have some ripe pumpkins starting late October/early November. If there are enough the grandchildren will get one for Halloween. I’ll carve a jack ‘o lantern myself and insert a little battery powered light.
I thought that I knew all about the birds and the bees until an older sibling taught me a year or too ago that pumpkins produce male flowers for the first 2 or 3 weeks, and then the female flowers appear. The female flowers have a little baby pumpkin attached to the vine. The males are a plain flower. Then the bees do their work fertilizing the female flowers with material from the males. If bees are absent then the gardener can hand pollinate, transfer some pollen from the males to the females, but it appears that bees have been doing this for eons and are are more efficient at this task than we are.
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blockquote>Support our small farmers
“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out – Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out – Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out – Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me” – Martin Niemoller “The United States of America made a mistake in giving poor countries food. We should have helped them to feed themselves” – George Bush Jr. 2008 “Examination of our past is never time-wasting. Reverberations from the past provide learning rubrics for living today.” – Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls.
Up to 1960, the continent of Africa was a net exporter of food, with many thriving rural farming communities, including many small farms. Around that time, however, these African countries began to achieve their independence and their new leaders, probably misadvised by economists like ours today, started importing cheap food for their urban masses at the expense of their farmers and rural poor who subsequently could not earn an adequate living. An “urban drift” resulted from these rural poor looking for jobs and a livelihood to support their families, which resulted in over-crowded urban centres and even more problems.
This process has been documented by the international agencies. There was no conspiracy planning to hurt the African countries, just erroneous policy and short-sighted, selfish, political priorities that failed to support their farmers and failed to recognise the true value of their farming community, to their countries’ economies.
Wastage
Sixty years later, Africa is still importing significant quantities of the food it needs to feed its people and billions upon billions of dollars in wasted foreign exchange for those cheap food imports, the modern African leaders are finding that this trend is not easy to reverse. Unlike economists, who the Universities produce by the score, only certain aspects of agricultural science can
be taught in a classroom.
Farming in general, is a way of life, for which aptitude is crucial and cannot be taught like economics in a classroom. Compounding the problem is a lack of economies of scale which limit small farmers in their financial margins and unfortunately they are also expected to feed the poor, not forgetting that these small farmers and their extended families make up the bulk of the rural poor anyway. This is why there is little or no private investment in agriculture – the returns on agricultural investment are non-existent!
The records show that there is a high turnover of small farmers, as many as 80 per cent, who fail to succeed in achieving an adequate standard of living within five years of startup. This has been the experience across the Caribbean in the many different land settlement schemes from Jamaica which has had more than 40 such schemes in areas such as Beverly, Boundbrook, Kildare, Yardley Chase, Lititz, Wake Forest and Haughton Court; to Wallerfield and Caroni in Trinidad; Orange Hill in St Vincent and the Grenadines; and Spring Hall and River Plantation in Barbados.
Given the foregoing, how can the Government of Barbados propose to do the same thing, import cheap food, ostensibly for a processing/packaging plant? Who are we really fooling that this cheap food will not end up on our supermarket shelves and deal a devastating blow to our farmer’s market? This at a time when the same Government has recently settled dozens of small farmers under it’s highly publicised “Farmers’ Empowerment and Enfranchisement Drive” (FEED) programme, while making them pay exorbitant commercial rates for their irrigation water.
Productivity
Barbados cannot feed itself, so we have to import a substantial portion of our food, but we should not be importing what our farmers can produce simply because it is cheaper. Barbados needs to import rice, corn, soya bean and other grains among a range of crops which we cannot produce ourselves. At the same time, our Government must provide solid support for our farmers to help them reduce their costs and the cost of their products. The Government needs to get our economic (rather than political) priorities right or we will never be able to repay our massive debt. A similar “can of
worms” which we have been “kicking down the road” is the lack of productivity and accountability of our public sector.
When they came for the “bond holders”, demanding a “haircut’ – you did not speak out because you were not a bond holder; when they came for the small contractors (by importing cheap Chinese housing) – you did not speak out because you were not a small contractor; when they came for the farmers (by charging commercial water rates for their irrigation water and importing cheap food) – you did not speak out because you were not a farmer; when they come for the pensioners (and they are coming) you will not speak out because you are not a pensioner – yet; when they come for you who will be left to speak for you?
Round and round we go, like water in a sinkhole vortex!– Peter Webster</blockquote>
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@Cuhdear, are you telling me that you celebrate ‘all Hallows” in Barbados too? I have been hand pollinating my pumpkins for a few years now. Sometimes the bees are late, or few, so you have to do it. So far, I have one pumpkin and two with ovaries. I hand pollinated one that had an open flower and removed a few leaves from around the other so the bees could find it. The females are always low to the ground while the male flowers are tall and most often than not above the leaves. I picked about four okras but they are not doing well. They needed the hot weather in the Spring and early Summer. The plants are all stunted. I planted the first week in June and they are only about a foot tall. Everyone who planted okras in the allotments have the same problem. Yesterday, today and tomorrow are heatwaves up here. With humidex today it was 42C. I opened the door and closed it right back. Tomorrow they are predicting that Toronto will reach 45C. I hope Hants keep indoors in that heat.
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@Dame+Bajans August 6, 2022 7:08 PM @Cuhdear, are you telling me that you celebrate ‘all Hallows” in Barbados too?”
Not in a big way, although some people are starting to do so. If I have an extra pumpkin I indulge the grans just for the fun of it.
My okras are loving the sun and rain and doing beautifully. I started to harvest them on Friday 5th August
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Wait! So this is where the two uh wunnuh been hiding?
Dame Bajans taught me about the pumpkin trick month’s ago! Unfortunately, this pumpkin vine is from seeds from over “in away” and is catching a fungus. Not enough leaves left to sustain even one pumpkin. I’m going to pull it up, flowering or not. My cousin brought me his variety that did very well last time. Zucchini leaves lasted a bit longer with the organic pesticide until I ran out and then tried my home made brew. Got some zucchinis smaller than my little finger. One has to keep on that family of plants. The pests love their leaves. Cucumber crop was small too because the bugs sucked the leaves until they curled up and almost died.
Okras had a bug attack also. I got rid of them AFTER they had eaten holes in every leaf. Small crop of okras still ongoing.
I missed ONE DAY of checking my cabbages and the bugs attacked. I pulled them out with only two small heads remaining.
But I am still reaping tomatoes, sweet peppers, lettuce ( nuff nuff) eggplants, beans, beets, carrots, radishes and all the herbs, chives and garlic chives. Even found the rosemary I had been seaching for forever. Cassava and sweet potatoes soon. And all the rest, kale, Chinese cabbage, celery etc. are small or are seedlings waiting to be transplanted.
Almonds, coconuts, pomegranate aplenty, one one mango still dropping, soursop on the last lap but two days of rain and the bananas are on the way in.
And I almost forgot that for the first time EVER I made a fruit salad with honey dew, sugar baby and cantalope ALL from my garden.
And as my son remarked just last week, “Mummy still feeling fussy wid she garden!”
YUP!
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@Donna August 9, 2022 6:36 AM “Wait! So this is where the two uh wunnuh been hiding?”
Hiding in plain sight, lol!
@Donna August 9, 2022 6:36 AM “I made a fruit salad with honey dew, sugar baby and cantalope ALL from my garden.”
Sounds delicious!!!
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Hello ladies. I see all is well with your gardening and harvesting. I have had a bumper crop of calalloo and zuccinis. I am eating so much veggies I am losing weight I think I should be keeping. Old black women don’t look good too skinny to my eyes.
Thirteen packs of callaloo already in the freezer. Cranberry beans will be picked, shelled and frozen in the next two weeks. Cucumbers almost finished, the cucumber beetle had a feast on the leaves. I used neem spray, but you have to catch them on the wing for it to be effective. The tomatoes are sweet for days. I am picking a few every two days. the majority will ripen at the same time for salsa making. The okras are disappointing and the pumpkins are late. They are only now coming out.
The English potatoes were most eaten by the chipmonks. I planted 20 hills and got about four pounds and these were deep. I guess they got tired of tunneling. Bajan spinach growing like a weed. The leaves are big like sea grape leaves at Bathsheba.
The Chinese eggplants are flourishing and I gave one to my friend’s husband this week along with a zuccini and some callaloo. I saw him this morning and he thanked me profusely and told me he peels and eats the stalks. I do too, but this year I could not be bothered with all the callaloo I have so I composted them.
I am growing yard long beans for the first time on a trellis and they are doing well, long but yet two skinny, no beans inside yet. Should be interesting. Tomorrow, I will mound up the leeks before they start to fatten out.I check out the other blogs from time to time, but I am tired of the same ole, same ole and the cussing, swearing and insults. I dont need to read that.
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@Cudhear,
Don’t bother with Bush Tea. I had sweet potato last night for a snack. I ate the skin. However, I roasted mine in the toaster oven. The only thing missing was the roasted salt fish. I miss the pit toilet. No straining, no haemorrhoids. Just cock up and the stool just comes out by gravitational pull. He claims to be a scientist.Leave him there with his artery clogging sundaes. Never touch the stuff, don’t eat icecream.
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I was a little worried that the pumpkins seemed a little slow to produce pumpkins, but all’s well now. I have 10 so far, from as big as 2 fists to about 10 pounds each. The first one should be ready for the pot mid month, and at this rate we should be able to continue harvesting until Christmas.
I am expecting a visitor from the great white north mid-month so maybe as a greeting a lovely home made soup with my own pumpkins, sweet potatoes and maybe yam, throw in some home grown spinach a bit of chicken or fish and that should go down nicely. Next day when warming over add some okras, even better.
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@Dame+Bajans July 22, 2022 10:23 AM “…the pumpkins can run in that bed. these ones are big, big, big.”
How are your pumpkins doing Dame Bajans?
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@Dame+Bajans August 24, 2022 12:46 PM “Cudhear, Don’t bother with Bush Tea. I had sweet potato last night for a snack. I ate the skin. However, I roasted mine in the toaster oven. The only thing missing was the roasted salt fish.”
I don’t take on the elderly misogynists. Living my sweet life.
I remember sticking a sweet potato through the arch of the coal pot when my mother had fired it up the coal-pot for cooking or ironing. Then eating the lovely smoky hot sweet potato, with a bit of roasted salt fish. Yum-yum.
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Cuhdear, my pumpkins have finally come alive. I have six big ones. Two butternuts and four Bajans. I also have three undetermined and three kabocha. My freezer is loaded with Bajan spinach and callaloo. The okras did nothing this year. Too cold. The eggplants are not producing. I only reaped 6 off 6 plants and one of my fellow gardeners came over to my allotment to complain that his are not producing. He harvested only four and last year he had 24. We are all suffering. I made nine pints of salsa this evening.
My old Bajan friend came yesterday for her veggies. She got callaloo, spinach, beets (they did well and are big, big, big), beans, zuccinis and tomatoes. I even gave her half a cabbage. It was a good thing she brought her cart. She uses a cane and could not have managed otherwise. I even gave her some of the grapes that had turned and some stewed cow foot that I had made. When the grapes are ready she will come and collect her share. lol
Someone in the allotment is stealing my long beans. I like them to get a little fat and left about two dozen on the front of the trellis. When I went yesterday, they were all gone, even the baby ones. -
$1.5m to boost coconut industry
Stories by Rachelle Agard rachelleagard@nationnews.comIt would take approximately $1.5 million to expand the coconut industry in Barbados and farmer Mahmood Patel is on a mission to see that within the next two years Barbados remains the leaders in the industry and set up an agri processing plant.
Patel, a coconut farmer, who is also the owner of Coco Hill Forest, told reporters he started the forest in 2013 to 2014, with the idea to look at the coconut industry as a subsector in the agricultural industry and one of the alternatives to the mono crop sugar cane.
He said they had planted about 500 trees over the last eight years, although they had intended to plant about 5 000 within that time frame. However, he said the challenge remained the geography of the Scotland District, which required an intensive capital expenditure.
Patel said after eight years they had made all the necessary mistakes and had learned from them in order to scale up.
“We will need [more] equipment like an excavator, more nuts and more seedlings as well. Ideally, we need to invest in a coconut nursery that is like 2
000 to 3 000 seedlings, and then equipment. To make this coconut thing work where it can have returns on investment and economies of scale, we need an additional investment probably in total about BDS$1.5 million,” he said yesterday at the end of a tour during the just concluded AfriCaribbean Trade & Investment Forum 2022.
However, Patel said procuring that amount of money had been a challenge, as they would need venture capital, equity funding or developmental funding for such an undertaking.
Venture capital needed
“We had tried with the commercial banks in the past and unfortunately, because of how our banking institution is structured, that’s not possible. We would probably need some kind of venture capital, equity funding, or some kind of developmental funding for a project like this. But as you could see, it’s working because one of the things that Coco Hill has attempted to do is to link with tourism, so that it is not only an agricultural project, but it is derisked by the linkage with tourism,” he explained.
Patel said they had been lobbying through the International Trade Centre and the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development
Institute, and had been attempting to deconstruct monoculture to add value to the crop. He said once funding was forthcoming, the plant could be up and running within 18 months to two years maximum.
“The main part of ramping up production is to set up an agro processing plant here once those 5 000 coconut trees and others managed through a collective process from other coconut farmers [are available] where we will do our coconut milk, coconut flour, coconut oil, desiccated coconut and other products.
“This is a billion dollar industry in the world. What gives the Caribbean an advantage of coconuts is because of the supply chain issues in the world and moving goods across the globe, and from Asia, where the coconut industry is mostly centred, in the Caribbean we are right next door to the United States. For Barbados, I would say at least from the Coco Hill point of view, our export market is tourism. Do you know how much coconut products we can sell in a week to the cruise ship industry, to the hotel industry? That’s the first market, and then from there maybe into Europe, into England and so on once we reach some kind of scale,” he said.Source: Nation
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Tomato vines drying up. Have three trays of the veggies here on the kitchen floor. One tray ready for salsa. Over the weekend, shelled and froze 8 pints of beans for use during winter. Have over 20 packs of bajan spinach already and more to pick. I checked and I have sweet potatoes near the surface. wow. I harvested lots of spinach seeds, will try selling some on “facebook marketplace” where I have sold other plants. Dont know about the ginger, it did not multiply well and is not very tall. I will bring in the one in the pot to over winter. the grapes are read, and my goodness, what a crop I have this year. So far, no squirrels. I guess the fishers got them all. The fishers have invaded the neighborhood and they like meat,,,,squirrels, cats, chipmounts and even dogs. All like now the squirrels would be fighting in the apple tree and raiding te grapes and leaving them on the ground. I say good riddance.
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Made ten cups of grape juice from half a tub of grapes this morning. The juice is now draining through two layers of muslin. Will make grape jelly tonight.
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The blogmaster is drooling Dame.
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@David
I made two bottles of grape juice last night. Had to simmer it for sterilization to kill the yeast spores. My old Bajan lady friend coming on Sunday for her bag full and my neighbor down the road coming tomorrow for hers. There is still lots on the vine. I cant even ship you some, but I send about six jars of various treats to a niece in Las Vegas.
I picked a pie plate full of spinach seeds today. Next spring I will be selling on Facebook Marketplace – 15 seeds for $3. Where ever there is a buck to be made, I am there. -
I harvested about 1500 okras. I stopped counting at 1,000. Still harvesting. I’ve chopped and frozen quite a bit, enough to last me for several months of cou-cou making, and some stir fries too. I shared with siblings, Little Johnnie, neighbors and cousins. Enough for everybody. Okras love very hot, wet weather. I will pull out the plants mid-November and plant some beans as beans seem to like the slightly cooler weather.
There were 8 pumpkins, the biggest one about 30 pounds, some others between 3 and 12 pounds. A nice one “disappeared” The big one is still in the fridge as I am saving it for November’s conkie making.
The spinach, cassava sweet potatoes, parsley, sweet basil, rosemary, chives and flat leafed garlic are all delicious. Some produce has been frozen. I made some cassava flour for later too, as I like cassava bakes and dumplings. I actually don’t like fresh cassava that much. Still some yams to be harvested. I was at Cheapside yesterday morning and yam was $4.00 per pound.
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Cuhdear, I have a pumpking in my garage that weighs 27 pounds. I had one that was 17 but that was cut up and shared. I will use the one outside for conkies this month, then I will grate and freeze some and give some away. I had some small pumpkins each weighing about a pound. I dont remember planting them and dont know where the seeds came from. It could have come in the pack of butternut. Anyway, this thing sweet for days and would serve one or two people. I got four and gave my old ajan lady friend one. I saved the seeds for next year as I will be planting more of these. It is november and I am still harvesting peas, tatsoi, celery and chinese mustard. I have a large patch of parsley and flat garlic chives in the back yard. In fact, I chopped down some of the garlic greens and used as mulch on a bed of onionions I planted. hopefully, the squirrels wont eat all before next spring.
I tried growing yams and eddoes. Got nothing but my sorrel is flowering. I grew it in a pot and it is now in a sunny window upstairs. I will have sorrel for Xmas, home grown.
Halloween was busy last night. I had over 50 kids and only about six live on my street. I think the parents bussed them in. They probably said, that is an older area, all retirees, they have money to buy good treats. I buy good treats when the chocolate goes on sale after Valentine and Easter and keep it in the cold room downstairs.
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It looks like you had a great growing season Dame Bajans, and the kids an even happier Halloween, lol! I carved one of my smaller pumpkins for the grandchildren for Halloween. There was one left on the vine when last I visited. Hope that it is still there.
I pulled out most of the okra plants and planted some beans on Saturday. I hope to complete these tasks by the end of the week. We are still getting pretty good rainfall so i am hopeful the the beans will thrive.
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Mindset change needed for food security
If you’re a regular reader of my column you probably know that I believe wholeheartedly in growing some of my own food. I deem myself an avid gardener (even though my dying lettuce may currently disagree) and I grow several crops, vegetables and herbs in planter pots I keep in my yard.
I also love fruit trees and see them as nature’s way of providing us with sustenance. I’ve spoken in previous articles of having neighbours who also have fruit trees and vegetable gardens and how we share our produce with each other. If I have my way, one day I will have my own little self-sustaining pseudo farm.
Observations
Recently while driving around the island I made a few interesting observations. While traversing the more “well to do” central neighbourhoods, I noticed most of the properties had not even one fruit tree on their lots, although most had wonderfully manicured gardens and hedges.
The few houses that had fruit trees, generally only had one or two, the usual mango or lime tree or the occasional cherry or pomegranate tree. Conversely, while traversing central areas in the lower class neighbourhoods, I observed many of the lots, even the small ones, had at least one fruit tree, sometimes even large breadfruit trees that had no business being on such small lots (potential for structural and foundational damage to adjacent houses). Some of these lots also had small kitchen or container gardens.
However, when I drove through the country areas such as parts of St George and St John, the majority of properties I observed,
even vacant or small lots, had at least one fruit tree, but in most instances there were several fruit and vegetable trees all around the lot.
This made me question the absence or scarcity of fruit trees in many of the middle to upper class neighbourhoods. As we increase in wealth, do we become less interested in self-sustaining practices and put all our confidence in the mighty dollar and our spending power?
Are we so assured of our income and the dependability of the supply chains that we just assume we will always be able to find what we want in the grocery stores or markets?
The pandemic was a major wakeup call for how quickly and unexpectedly things can change. Many people lost jobs or had to live on reduced income.
We witnessed shortages in supplies due to lockdowns in China and elsewhere and we continue to see supply chains affected by the Russia/ Ukraine war. While some people started small kitchen gardens during the pandemic, many have now abandoned those ventures in their return to “normal” As long as we believe that our ability to sustain ourselves rests mainly (or only) in our spending power (capitalist mindset) then we will continue to put insufficient weight on small steps to increase food security, like planting fruit trees.
The reality is that no matter how much money you have, you can only purchase what exists. If there becomes a worldwide food shortage as some have proposed will occur, then all the money in the world will not put food on the table.
But if we invest in small steps like planting more fruit trees and vegetables and invest more heavily in the country’s agriculture and
manufacturing sectors, then we will better weather disturbances in the international food or supply chains.
We can get so attached to busyness and use it as a measure of our productivity and worth that we fail to make time for anything else, and certainly have no time to plant food!
It is only when disaster strikes, such as a job losses, a pandemic or shortage in the supply chain that we are jolted back to the reality that money can only do so much.
No matter how much money you have you can only purchase what actually exists.
I believe this is what the proponents for investing in food security have been trying to communicate.
Michelle M. Russell is an attorney with a passion for employment law and labour matters and she is a social activist.
Email mrussell.ja@gmail.com. -
Alas, my last apple tree will have to be cut down in the spring. It was so damaged by storms that the few branches remaining are dying. I think I will replace it with a pear or plum that dont need cross pollination.
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@Dame Bajans
Sorry to hear, we live and we die this we cannot change but you seem to enjoy what you do.
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Well, the ladies have been hiding in plain sight again!
They seem to be reaping the sweets. My little garden is also doing quite well, even though the mealy-bug has discovered its location.
The ants are trying to help me with them but I had to use some blue soap eventually. It seems that I don’t have enough of the ants to keep up. Though they did manage to keep the bugs small and I only lose a couple of leaves over a week or two, I couldn’t bear it any longer. I like pristine leaves.
I have all the usual crops and some broccilli that seems to be coming along. Got me some yard long beans and sorrel also. Going to try cauliflower because it enjoys the cooler months, I am told.
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Going out do dig some sweet potato. It is wet but these days it is almost always wet. I have had to irrigate only a couple of days in the last month or more.
When I did, I had rain water collected.Kitchen garden life is sweet!
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@ Donna. People wont know until they try it. We had snow on the ground. Last week I had to dig out two tatsoi mustards. Today, there is not a flake left. It is warm like Spring. People are out wearing flip-flops and t-shirts. Glad to see your garden is producing. I got one sorrel plant which I brought in in the Fall. I had pollinated some of the flowers but most fell off. I moved it to another room, big mistake. I now have one large sorrel on it and the seed pod is very big. I plan to plant some of those seeds so they mature for Fall next year. It seems no matter when you plant they ripen in the Fall. This one took ten months to produce flowers. I did not realize it was a long season fruit.
The neighbor just finished chopping down a tree that threw shadow over my garden. Hallelulia. -
Finally this year the yams turned out really well. No longer only as big as baby’s to adult sized fists but from half a pound to 3+ pounds, The secret seems to be deep soil, frequent fertilizer and steady rainfall and sunshine. We planted in the same field but in a different location where the soil is much deeper. We harvested enough to serve 3 families for several months and some to give to friends and neighbors.
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I’ve begun to harvest the beans which I planted on November 5th.
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Six weeks beans. Beautiful. If only I could garden year round.
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Guyana to ramp up food production
GEORGETOWN, Guyana – Advancement in the agriculture sector is imminent, as much emphasis is being placed on reducing Guyana’s and the Caribbean’s foodimport bill by 25 per cent by 2025 through the increased production of high-valued crops to meet its market demands, among other things.
In a recent interview, Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha, said Guyana spent, $2.6 billon in the last year on the importation of highvalued crops, such as broccoli, cauliflower and carrots.
It is for this reason that the government intends to continue the diversification of the agriculture sector next year.
Minister Mustapha said that while agriculture is one of the main sectors that will help to diversify the country’s economy, much more work has to be done.
He related that the goal is to first become self-sufficient.
“Two weeks ago I signed a contract with an Israeli company for shade houses and hydroponics… I think what is happening in the country and with the investment coming on stream, we can become selfsufficient,”
Mustapha said.
Earlier this year, President Dr. Irfaan Ali, had launched the Agriculture and Innovation Entrepreneurship Programme, a project aimed at tapping into the benefits of the production of broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. Fifty-four shade houses were developed under the project.
Mustapha said that the recent agreement between the Israeli company will see the President’s programme being expanded even further.
The US$15.7 million project will include the construction of a hydroponic growing system and will be integrated into the ongoing shade house project along the East Coast of Demerara.
“In the hospitality industry and the oil and gas industry these products are in high demand.
“We can be self-sufficient in those areas and that is where we are looking to reduce the food-import bill,” Minister Mustapha said.
He said too that Guyana will also increase its production of corn, soya bean and wheat.
“At the end of 2023, we might see close to 5,000 acres of corn cultivation, because we are hoping, in the next three years, we can take that up to 25,000,” Mustapha said.
Early this year, works on three, 3000-tonne silos and one 80-tonne-per-hour drying tower at Tacama Landing, along the Berbice River, had begun, so as to increase the production of corn and soya bean in that area.
Further, in the first quarter of the new year, construction of the foundation and installation of a corn and soya bean processing plant will commence at the Tacama Landing.
That processing plant will provide a drying and storage facility for the corn and soya farmers in the Tacama area.
In 2021, six local companies and a regional firm joined together to undertake a massive project that could see Guyana becoming self-sufficient in corn and soya bean over the next few years.
The owners of Guyana Stockfeeds Incorporated, Royal Chicken, Edun Farms, SBM wood, Dubulay Ranch, and Bounty farm ltd., along with the Brazilian-owned, N F agriculture, have partnered to produce soya bean and corn for both the local and regional markets.
(Guyana Chronicle) -
It was packed with entertainment, creating a sweet vibe. There was no shortage of liquor for drink lovers. The menu prepared by one of the island’s culinary best, Chef Creig Greenidge, included roasted salmon and cream cheese with assorted crackers; fish cakes with tartar sauce; curry chicken salad cups; tea; coffee; breakfast oats; cheese and herb scrambled eggs; rosemary sea-salt breakfast potatoes; grilled chicken sausage; Bajan seasoned chicken and waffles; honey balsamic glazed ham carvery; and white wine infused with chicken.
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@Hants
You ‘living large and in charge’
Living the dream.
Did you sign up for the $2500/person event… If you got it, flaunt itPoor me.. some biscuits and cheeses, some apple cider, music on the radio and will wait for you to post your links of the party.
Happy New Years to you and yours.
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Gardening season is around the corner. Ordered some new non GMO seeds from two seed houses. I have been re-using the same seeds for years and the yields were not good last year. I will be trying perilla this year and Valencia peanuts. I also got some shanghai bok choi, which my son prefers to the regular big choi. This year I will plant my yard long beans at home so they won’t temp other peoples hands to pick them. I also got new butternut squash seeds, heritage, which grows only to eight inches long. I got some clemson spineless okras which I will plant with my Indian lady fingers.
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This thread used to be a lot more popular with the Bu ladies but is more difficult to find with the navigation of the new Bu format
it needs a special tab
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Hants, five flying fish weighing three ounces are selling for $18 Canadian in Ottawa. I leave them right where they are. I buy fresh king fish at $9.99 and frozen dolphin from Peru at $11.99 per pound.
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@ Dame Bajans,
no flying fish available so I have been buying frozen Mahi mahi and Salmon from Costco.
I have been a pescatarian or a few years. -
Man, doan use dem big words pun me. My latin not good, but meaning clear.
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Made some money selling sweet potato slips and spinach seeds. lol. Slips are $5, and twenty seeds are $2.
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Barbados Meteorological Services (BMS) said on Saturday that wet conditions are expected across Barbados over the next few days from Sunday, April 23 to Thursday, April 27, associated with a surface to low-level trough system.
A statement said current model predictions suggest that most of the shower activity will occur on Monday with some isolated peaks on Sunday. However, cloudy skies and some showers are likely to persist across the island into Thursday. Rainfall accumulations of one to three inches over the next five days are expected.
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” Saying she was anticipating the calorie counter being made available to the public, the Prime Minister said: “How many calories in cou-cou and red herring? . . . . How many calories in a roti? . . . How many calories in oil down? How many calories in pudding and souse? How many calories in souse with one trotter or how many calories in trotter with nuff features?”
https://barbadostoday.bb/2023/04/22/tool-being-developed-to-track-calorie-content-of-local-foods/
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‘IT’S UNFAIR’
Paul: Unreasonable to ask farmers to keep prices down
There is too much talk about lowering prices and not enough support for agricultural subsidies in Barbados, charged Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS) chief executive officer James Paul.
Speaking to the media yesterday following a poultry seminar hosted by the BAS and Pinnacle Feeds in the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, Paul stressed that prices were influenced from beyond the island’s shores.
“I think it’s a bit too much to expect for us to have discussions about keeping prices down in an environment around the world where prices are going up. In the United Kingdom, eggs are twice the price they are in Barbados . . . there are challenges around the world.
“How hypocritical are we to expect on one hand for prices to drop when on the other, prices are rising worldwide. We need to get past that. We should not prevent producers in Barbados from charging a reasonable price for their labour and efforts because when we do that, we are making the production of commodities in Barbados less profitable,” he said.
Regarding subsidies in the agricultural sector, Paul said while this seemed to be a major problem for the sector, it was not an issue as it related to tourism.
“Every country in the world subsidises its agricultural sector and I make no apologies for asking Government to provide the same here. We spend more than $50 million on the tourism industry and Barbadians make no qualms about it. Rich people come into Barbados, build hotels, and receive huge benefits and we as a people make no bones about it, yet we have difficulty when we are engaging in practices that would help a poor farmer who is trying to feed his family. We make qualms over $2 million when $50 million is going the other way,” he said.
Paul said the lack of a subsidy was hurting the local market as foreign agencies had a competitive advantage.
“How can we compete in price against large industries that receive huge subsidies from their governments? What you are seeing here at seminars such as this, some countries subsidise it in their countries but here in Barbados, the BAS and Pinnacle Feeds are taking money out of their pockets, from profits they should make, to do this.
“It is unfair when we have these local economists that talk about free trade and breaking down the trade barriers to allow foreign products in. What they don’t understand is they are asking local producers to compete with a farmer who has huge advantages,” he said.
The BAS chief also spoke about the need to bring together all the stakeholders in order to tackle the issues affecting agriculture.
“Very often, when an issue happens, the easiest thing is to point fingers in order to say ‘it is not my fault’ and sometimes we also have politics where people like to create victims to say ‘you were taken advantage of’. In truth and in fact, the sector has to stand up and take responsibility for its future.
“This seminar, which we fought for to be introduced, makes the farmer aware they have to take responsibility in many ways for the success of their individual operations and at the same time the feed company has to recognise we have to do things differently and if there is one thing this seminar will do, is start the process to try and ensure that we do things differently in the industry,” he said. (CA)Source: Nation
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So wait, I thought most homes had to have a water tank. Is this water not used for gardening, washing cars, etc? They are getting lots of rain this week. The tanks should be full.
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