Farmers in Langley Park benefit under sustainable farming project

Two farmers cooperatives, with membership from the Langley Park area, were the recipients of support from the Government of Australia, through its Direct Aid Program (DAP), administered by the Australian High Commission in Trinidad and Tobago. The cooperatives – Women in Agriculture Langley Park (WALCO), and the Windward Irrigation Initiative Cooperative (WiiCoop), who collectively represent 60 small farmers operating in the Langley Park area received this assistance on behalf of their members, who are small farmers operating farms in the area, a release from the Institute for Co-operation in Agriculture (IICA) states.

The items were provided as part of a project titled, Supporting Sustainable Agricultural Practices on Small Farms in Langley Park. The goal of the project is to promote the adoption of sustainable farming practices among farmers by encouraging the adoption of mechanical weed control and the utilisation of vegetative and animal farm waste for composting. This project is providing for the following:

• The procurement of weed trimmers and shredders for weed control operations, and the shredding of vegetative farm waste in preparation for composting and nursery and field use.

• Provision of a generator to provide power to assist with farm operations requiring power.

• Provision of training in the use of purchased equipment and composting for beneficiary farmers, and

• Procurement of water tanks to support seedling nursery operations.

Speaking on behalf of WALCO, Chair for the Board of Directors, Louise Sampson expressed her thanks to the DAP and the Government of Australia for the support to her cooperative. “The group is very grateful for the donation of items received from the Australian Government, which will go a long way in supporting the farming activities of our members.”

Chairman of the Board of Directors of WiiCoop, Conrad Simon, also expressed appreciation on behalf of his organisation for the support received through the project.

“We would like to thank the Australian Government for donating this equipment to us. For us in WiiCoop, we had our farms pretty much in full production before the Soufriere Volcano [eruption] and we loss everything, our individual members and the group generally, and the restarting has been challenging and these equipment will go a long way in getting our production off the ground. And even after the Soufriere, the ashes brought its own challenges,” the release quotes Simon as saying.

He also commented that “the shredders especially will help us with our soil management and getting our crops going and we appreciate very much”.

Technical Specialist at the IICA Delegation in St Vincent and the Grenadines, Michael Dalton, also provided a brief background on the project which was conceptualised in September, 2023 after discussions with representatives of both farmers cooperatives and IICA. It was decided that a project of this nature was necessary to encourage farmers into more natural methods of farming, to encourage composting and the increased use of organic matter to restore the health of the soil, particularly after the volcanic eruptions of 2021, the excessive ash deposits and its adverse effects on the production of some crops. He further explained that this project was a follow-up to activities conducted under a previous project also supported by the Government of Australia’s DAP and implemented in 2022 for the same organisations in Langley Park. Under that project, titled “Capacity building to support vegetable production recovery on Langley Park Farms”, the beneficiaries received training and material support to assist their recovery from La Soufriere Volcano eruptions. This included the establishment of two seedling nurseries, provision of small tools and equipment for 30 farmers, and the provision of an assortment of seeds and fertilizers to support the operation of the nurseries and the production on the farms.

Dalton said all activities under both projects, are the result of a collaborative effort between the five parties – the two farmers cooperatives, the DAP as funder, IICA as the project implementing agency and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries, Rural Transformation, Industry and Labour which has provided technical and material support to the activities. The project will close at the end of August, but Dalton indicated that IICA has a long-term commitment to supporting farmers organisation in St. Vincent and the Grenadines according to its mandate, and the technical cooperation agenda for the country as directed by the Ministry of Agriculture.