WINFA completed its second round of farmers training on Monday, June 11. The trainee farmers and workers were drawn from farms located in South Rivers, Colonaire, Orange Hill and Byera.

A special dimension of the week’s training event was the involvement of farm workers as trainers and trainees alongside farmers. The event took place at the farm of Simeon Greene at San Souci and was facilitated by the workers of the farm. They were the trainers and they did so in the absence of the farm owner. The workers ably demonstrated their application skills, answering questions and explaining why they carried out the farming practices used on the farm.

The first training/demonstration event was held two weeks ago on the farm of Gideon Gilbert of Evesham, who was the trainer. He explained and demonstrated to his peers his excellent practices in plant and soil health and black sigatoka disease management among other good agricultural and Fair trade practices. The trainees were selected from seven farms in the Overland, Three Rivers, Colonaire and Park Hill areas.

These training events are the first phase of an education and training program through which WINFA is working to strengthen the capacity of its members to teach one another; to share their knowledge and skills; to cooperate and collaborate to overcome weaknesses and; to build resilience in the face of the many challenges they face in the agricultural sector, more specifically, the banana industry.