Mined-out lands to flourish again
Published:Saturday | January 29, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Jermaine Francis, Gleaner Writer
MOCHO, Clarendon:
FOR THE past three years a group has been working to reclaim the mined-out bauxite lands in the hills of Mocho, Clarendon. This small group of farmers in the community are helping Mocho to regain the days when the community flourished with citrus and coffee farming.
"We have lost thousands of arable lands over the last 40 years due to bauxite mining in the community. We have lost a lot of fruit trees through this process and the project is to help to replenish these lands," stated the chairman of the Mocho Development Committee (MDC), Gersham Francis.
Francis said the reforestation project is being funded by the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica (EFJ) and the Inter-American Foundation (IAF) and that the group had received funding and technical advice from organisations such as the Rural Agricultural Development Authority, the Social Development Commission and Jamalco.
He said that so far they had planted over 6,000 seedlings on over 80 acres of these mined -out lands, and they had leased eight pits from Jamalco to help with the process of reclaiming these lands.
Receptive community
The vice-president of the MDC, Thomas Wint, said Mocho is a community that depends largely on farming for its livelihood, so it was only fitting that an organisation was formed to help the community to benefit like it once did from this industry.
Wint said that the persons in the community were very receptive to the project being undertaken and had expressed their willingness to help with its longevity.
Both Francis and Wint are optimistic that the project will be beneficial to the entire community as strategies are in place to get several greenhouses to grow a variety of crops across the community. They say the committee has constructed a small greenhouse in Brixton Hill and they are hoping to expand this in the near future as its current size can only benefit a small number of persons from that community.
"We see this project as a long-term one and one that will help to greatly impact the lives of several persons who participate in farming in this community. These lands that we have identified have been idle for years, and the committee will be doing everything it can to get these lands occupied again with fruit trees," stated Francis.
He said they are currently in the process of constructing a micro dam, so that during the periods of prolonged droughts the farmers may have a water source for their crops. He said more of these water units would be built in conjunction with the IAF and the EFJ.
Along with these undertakings, Francis said when these water units are constructed, the organisation might be able to expand and get the farmers in the community involved in aquaculture.
Michael Anderson, one of the farmers involved with the project, said that the community was longing for a project like this as not enough was being done to sustain Mocho as a farming community.
"Is long time an organisation like dis did want inna di place. Because is nuff farmer deh bout, but we don't have any land or force behind us, supporting us and giving us the opportunity to bring back Mocho as a farming community," Anderson said.