Greenhouse farming to reposition Mocho
Published:Saturday | January 29, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Christopher Serju, Gleaner Writer
MOCHO, Clarendon:
IF THINGS go according to plan, Enos Anderson's plan, the "roaring hills of Mocho", will be alive with greenhouse farming by mid-year. Anderson, who is president of the Mocho Greenhouse Management Committee, is set on putting Mocho on the map for all the right reasons with a view to clearing up long-held misconceptions about Mocho, Clarendon.
"Me born and grow right yah so. There is a myth and a misconception that we want to dispel, but we don't want to dispel it with words, we want to dispel it with performance. There is a bunch of stupid Jamaicans who have perpetuated this lie that stupid people come from Mocho. We are going to perform, as a community, to dispel that myth. What are we going to do?
"We are going to have one of the best primary schools in Jamaica, which is the Mocho Primary. We going to have one of the best high schools, which is Lennon High School, and we have started. We have a greenhouse facility that we plan to flesh out to create sustainable employment for the community of Mocho so that we wont' have to rely on PATH and handouts. We are going to work our way out of poverty and hardship," Anderson told The Gleaner.
Wean dependent communities
Vice-president Oneil Gayle goes on to explain that the aim is to wean the communities from their dependence on Jamalco as a source of employment. Interestingly, the bauxite company has been playing a pivotal role in helping to facilitate this change. On a section of mined-out bauxite land, located in Mount Airy, Mocho, the company has put up the infrastructure to facilitate this life-changing transformation. This includes a 2.7-million gallon rainwater catchment fitted with a solar-power water pump to take the water up to six 800-gallon plastic tanks from which it is gravity-fed to the greenhouses.
A building constructed by Jamalco houses the administrative offices of the Greenhouse Committee, as well as classes where members of the Jamaica Greenhouse Growers Association instruct farmers in greenhouse farming each week. Practical demonstrations are done in the nearby four 100 X 17 ft greenhouse. This is just a fraction of the number for which Anderson and his committee are aiming. The business plan calls for the construction of 40 greenhouses on the property, which will be leased to farmers, starting with community groups. They will be given a start-up loan of $23,000, which will include the cost of fertilizer and seedlings, which they will be supplied with.
All this is subject to completion of a lease arrangement for the property between Jamalco and the group, as well as a drawdown of money from the bauxite company's micro-financing facility, which is being administered by the Clarendon Co-operative Credit Union. All parties involved are hopeful that the paperwork will be completed by early February. According to Anderson, there are already a number of community groups waiting to come on-board.