'Noah's Ark' to the rescue

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

According to the Bible, animals were loaded on to Noah's Ark in pairs, ensuring reproductive capability after the Great Flood. Food For the Poor (FFP) takes much the same approach in its animal-husbandry programme, giving out goats and pigs in pairs to farmers.

Interestingly, the core of the goat-rearing programme is run by a number of men who cannot otherwise participate in the project - at least, until they have served their time. Norvel Bedward, agriculturist at FFP, explained: "We have a breeding station at Tamarind Farm (correctional facility). From that, we distribute to small farmers, or interested persons, in pairs. We monitor them for a particular period of time, make sure they are OK, and we also give the farmers training."

The programme started in 2006 and Bedward said the minimum stock for the herd is 25 goats. The animals are distributed when they are six months old.

Dwayne Bent, another agri-culturalist, said that the pigs are distributed at about six weeks old. The recipients get not only the wieners, but also 10 bags of feed, which will provide for the animals up to when they are three months old. The recipient has to operate a pig facility, and there is monitoring to ensure that the animals are being taken care of.

Minimising costs

For the pigs, FFP does not operate a breeding facility. Bent said: "We try to identify a competent pig farmer in each purchase and we try to purchase from them." This minimises transportation costs to the recipient.

Bent also said that the farmers are asked not to put the pigs on the market before they are ready. "We encourage them to grow the pigs to fattening stage and sell them," he said. The sales are done on the public market.

The pig programme has been in operation since February this year.

An ornamental fish programme, from which nine persons in St Elizabeth have benefitted, also has an established operation. Bedward said funding was accessed through CitiBank and United Way and "we identified a mother farm in St Elizabeth. We set up three facilities within relative proximity of the mother farm. The concept really came through for us. None of us had experience in the pet fish industry, so we partnered with Robin Hall".

Hall also ensures that there is a market for the FFP beneficiaries, as he buys back the fish from them. "Not that they are restricted to selling to him," Bedward clarified, "but he provides a secure market."

The project has been running for a year and the plan is to replicate it in other areas. "Each area we are going in we plan to set up a mother farm, so come what may, they will have a market. The mother farm can sell them locally and internationally," Bedward said.

He also pointed out that those who had benefitted from the project are more than the nine direct beneficiaries as "the communities are quite large. Children who used to go to school three days a week are going five now, because of the project".