The Greatest Success Story

As a young farmer I face many challenges. I see these challenges as stepping stones to reach higher heights in this amazing field of agriculture. As any other young farmer, there are times I feel like giving up but I intend to keep pressing on.

Two of the main issues that I face in this business are market and finance (collateral). There was one point in time, our governments would encourage their local farmers to plant but when time to harvest  there is no readily available market and a whole heap of glut. In all of this I would not blame the government nor will I sit and wait on them to create the windows for me to achieve my goal. We have to create our own windows.



web 2.0 training and exchange workshop UWI cave hill
 

If you have Faith in God, land and water you have great wealth. As a small scale farmer I  have been exposed to a number of training through CAFAN  (http://www.caribbeanfarmers.org/?showthread=Mandalay-Bay-Resort-Casino&forum=blackjack)  in conjunction with, CTA (http://www.cta.int/en/), FAO (http://www.fao.org/home/en/), COLEACP PIP (http://www.coleacp.org/en) and the EU (http://europa.eu/pol/agr/index_en.htm).  These are some of the areas I was trained, marketing, recordkeeping, production planning, pest and diseases control, web 2.0 and training of trainers for extensionists . At this point, I am better able to guide my business in the direction that would make it sustainabe. My definition of success, is not measured by the amount of vehicles you own, the 3 story house you have or the wealth of cash you have in the bank but by the peace that comes with what you do.

Having a wealth a knowledge and information and not doing anything with it, sets the stage for imminent failure. In my business my daughter (11) now has the responsibility to keep records using the computer and my wife is in charge of the accounts. In terms of value added I do lunch catering on weekends that I sell in my village using livestock and vegetables from my farm, I have readily available market to the school feeding program through my wife who is a teacher, I sell to the local market and to some retail outlets.   Now I am better able to guide my business in the direction I want it to go. My definition of success, is not measured by the amount of vehicles you own, the 3 story house you have or the wealth of cash you have in the bank but by the peace that comes with what you do.

My success story is the support of my family, using the natural resources that I have at my disposal to produce healthy crops and livestock for my consumers, the ability to replenish the land and with that, I am at peace.