A family tradition

Karen Sudu, Gleaner Writer

AS A nine-year-old student at Spring Village All-Age School in St Catherine, Lloyd Smith was already tilling the soil.

He had his own backyard garden with callaloo and okra, and he wasn't growing it for the family pot.

He would reap his crops and travel with his mother, Cyriline Ellis, on the back of the market truck from Gutters to Darling Street, downtown Kingston, to sell his produce.

"Mi really born come see mi mother a do it, and mi just grow up into it, and just take up the trade and catch on," he told The Gleaner.

Now 34 years old, Smith is a full-fledged farmer and credits the Rural Agricultural Development Authority for the skills and training he has acquired.

Chicken rearing part of job

He was quite upbeat as he guided a tour of his farms, established on different plots of leased land in Lloyd's Pen, a district situated on the outskirts of Old Harbour, St Catherine.

"Mi plant cucumber, pumpkin, sweet and hot peppers and, of course, I start farming with okra and callaloo from mi was a boy," Lloyd boasted, as he and older brother Fitzroy picked a few cucumbers.

His lush callaloo field, cultivated on a half-acre of land, stood tall in the bright afternoon sun.

The journey to the property, where he has coops with 300 chickens, was a little less than a kilometre from where he cultivated his crops.

Obviously happy her four children had emulated her, Cyriline, who lives on the property, explained that it was Lloyd's passion for agriculture that motivated him to expand his business.

"Him love farming and take it over for a living. Him plant little callaloo and little okra and save the money, and tek time upgrade himself and buy 50 chickens first. That is how him branch off into raising chickens, pigs, goats and fish," she told The Gleaner.

Big dreams, little money

Lloyd's dream is to increase his livestock but, like many small farmers, he needs assistance for this to happen.

"Right now, I have coops that can hold plenty more chicken, but the market kinda stagnant now, so I really need help to market the chickens," he said. "The Government needs to do something to help us to do this."

He also wants to cultivate a wider variety of crops.

"Mi have the land can grow any crop, but wi want the financial help. Because when wi find the money to plough the land and buy suckers and seeds, the spray part kinda rough because it is expensive."

He added: "There is another problem. Wi need help to market even the callaloo 'cause of late, sometimes mi have to give the pigs what wi don't sell."

On the other hand, selling his fish, which he says are quite costly to raise, is not as challenging.

"Vendors downtown order the fish; like all one person might order all 100lb or 200lb, and even sometimes one man in Twickenham Park might buy out all the fish in the whole three ponds when them ready, and one pond might have in all 1,000lb," he explained.