Rural Development Commission client, Joseph Hackett, showing those present at the Open Farm Workshop how to plant a plantain sucker, while Senior Field Officer at the Rural Development Commission, Osmond Harewood, looks on.
Senior Field Officer at the Rural Development Commission (RDC), Osmond Harewood (right), speaking to persons who attended the Rural Development Commission’s Open Farm Workshop about the plantain sucker which was placed in the ground.
Grow more food
ONE government agency is seeking to encourage more Barbadians to grow their own food.
The Rural Development Commission (RDC) is doing so through its Open Farm Workshop. The first of these initiatives was held on Saturday in Foster Hall, St. John where RDC’s client Joseph Hackett spoke to attendees about how to grow plantains and bananas.
RDC’s Public Relations Officer, Wendy Burke, explained that the workshop is part of the Commission’s ‘Grow What You Eat Programme’. This programme was launched in February.
“It is a programme which we are running under the Barbados Sustainable Recovery Plan and we will be doing two Open Farm Workshops and two indoor seminars, instructing people on the growth and care of various crops.”
She further revealed, “The whole idea behind this initiative is to help individuals to be able to reduce their food bill.
“Right now, food security and sustainability is something that we should be concerned about. We should also be concerned about our environment and eating healthy foods because the offshoot to this ‘Grow What You Eat Programme’ is that whilst you are reducing your food bill at home and ultimately helping with the national food import bill, you are also helping to grow something which is going to be good for your health system in the long run because by eating healthier, you are helping to stave off non-communicable diseases that we have to deal with on a daily basis here in Barbados.”
Burke stated that the RDC will be giving rural residents “receptacles free of charge” to encourage them to do their own gardening, regardless of if they have plots of land or not. Persons from the rural community will also receive “free seeds and seedlings”.
“We will target a particular district as our pilot and do a full session in that location. We will also be having these give-a-ways done from the parent ministry’s headquarters in Country Road, to the rear of the NHC’s [National Housing Commission] building, where we will be giving you these items from within our container and also signing you up for the programme because we want to know that after you have taken the stuff, that you are actually doing the growing process and if you have any issues along the way.” (MG)