Farmers must be trained

Chief Agricultural Officer, Lennox Chandler is of the view that persons in Barbados must be trained before they are able to hold the title of ‘farmer’.

Chandler’s view was expressed as he delivered a few remarks during the graduation ceremony of the SJPI students who took part in the Protective Agriculture Training Project.

“There is this notion that everyone thinks that agriculture is very simple and anybody can do it. They plant a few seeds and all of sudden they’re scientists; seeds are designed to grow anyhow, so if you throw a seed outside and it doesn’t grow then something is wrong,” he said.

“Farmers really need to be trained and this is exactly what this training sessions is about. We’re training young people in the rudiments of and the basics of agricultural science and farming.”

He revealed that many people went into the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Fisheries and Water Resource Management looking to be registered as farmers. However, he expressed that if he had his way, “no person could register as a farmer until you can provide me with evidence that you have received some basic training in farming and agriculture.”

“Just because you have O’level Maths does not make you an accountant or a book keeper; you really need to have some training so that when you go out there you don’t waste your time, waste your money or waste your energies in trying to produce a crop which may very well fail,” he said.

“A garden bed is not three or five acres of land, so you really need to train people.”

He expressed that programmes such as he Protective Agriculture Training Project was an example of the collaboration that takes place between other agencies in agriculture and the ministry as a way of teaching the young people the rudiments of agriculture as persons in the ministry with skills and expertise were sharing these skills and experiences with the young people of Barbados who had an interest in agriculture.