Cocoa pruning exercise begins on five-acre field

Bryan Dasent, one of the farmers venturing into the developing Cocoa industry here, says he is happy to be a part of the project and is encouraging others to get on board.{{more}}

Last Thursday, officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, the St Vincent Cocoa Company and the St Vincent Chapter of the Armajaro Co, visited Dasent’s five-acre Cocoa field, located at Diamonds, to launch the start of a massive pruning exercise that is expected to rehabilitate, in the first instance, 150 acres of cocoa fields.

“I am happy that the government, along with the cocoa company is coming to revamp some of the cocoa fields in St Vincent and I am very proud that they came to my field that was established by my father, when he was in the agriculture department.

“I hope everybody takes this as a learning experience and learn from this in order to do well in their venture in cocoa,” Dasent said, as he stood and watched the Ministry of Agriculture field officers prune his cocoa trees.

The 31-year-old Diamonds Village resident, however, noted that Thursday’s demonstration is not only for him, but also for other farmers to see what has been done and how to do it properly.

Dasent’s sentiments were echoed by Minister of Agriculture Saboto Caesar, as he too encouraged more farmers, more specifically the younger ones, to get on board with the Cocoa project.

Caesar explained that he and Dasent went through the primary school system together, and he is proud to know that his former classmate’s field was the first to be used as a demonstration for the pruning exercise.

“At the age of ten, we did not know that 21 years later that we will be standing, Saboto Caesar as the Minister of Agriculture and Bryan Dasent as a landowner and a farmer on such a major project.

“I just want to use this opportunity to encourage the young persons in St Vincent and the Grenadines that agriculture has an extremely bright future for all Vincentians. And that the young people in St Vincent and the Grenadines must never be discouraged by the hard work which is sometimes involved in agriculture,” he said.

Meanwhile, Andrew Hadley, manager of the St Vincent Cocoa Company, said “the name of the game is to make money through cocoa.”

“By pruning these trees, we will be able to get a better circulation of air. Encourage the pods and the flowers to blossom and at the end of the day, we will be able to reap more cocoa, which means that there will be more money in the farmers ‘pocket,” Hadley stated.

Four cocoa trees were used in Thursday’s pruning exercise, as field officers from the Ministry of Agriculture cleared vines and chopped out old cocoa tree barks to make way for new trees on Dasent’s farm.(AA)